Engineer Effect
by Rickhunter1997
Summary: Kyon Salgrins is your average college student, but unlike most students, he runs his own business, and can build just about anything that the technology around him permits. One day he gets a call to build and deliver a strange object, he didn't know that it would change his life.
1. Chapter 1

Kyon Salgrens was sitting in his workshop behind the house that his parents had bought a few years back, his phone started to ring, "Salgrens's mechanics, what do you need?" he asks as he picks it up.

"Kyon are you still up?" a feminine voice responds to him, "It's three in the morning, and we have a test tomorrow."

Kyon smiles as his unofficial girlfriend calls him, "Yes I'm still up," he says, "I got an express package, need to get it done in the next few hours," he says as he fixes his steam-punk goggles, "and I could say the same to you Jane."

"I know," she tells him, "but I know you, and you always sleep in class because you are up all night building those weird machines," she tells him, "I mean last night you sent me a 1,000 word text about how you just built a gauntlet with a hidden knife in it for some guy in italy," she tells him.

"Yeah that was a bulk order," Kyon says, "had to build 500 of those damned things, made a few extra to keep for myself."

"How many did you keep?" she asks, "you know that it's illegal to have hidden blades," she tells him, "I mean how many illegal items do you keep in that workshop of yours?"

"Umm, with the wrist blades I think it's around 23," Kyon says as he looks at the inventory, "No it's 25, unless I count that disarmed mine then it's 26,"

"You are going to get arrested one of these days," Jane says as she facepalms on the other side of the line, "I mean all you do is create dangerous things, and you don't even question who you send them to."

"I do background checks," Kyon retorts as he flicks his hands in and out nonchalantly. He sighs as he watches the blade extend and retract, "I don't send these things to convicted felons."

"Finish that thing, and deliver it," Jane commands, "I'll see you tomorrow..." she pauses for a second, "I'll see you tomorrow," she repeats slowly before hanging up the phone.

"I love you," Kyon says to the dial tone, before he puts his phone back down and starts working playlist, "Area 11," he says as he puts his goggles on and uses his welder to put the finishing touches on a tuning fork like object with rings in the middle, "I love this band," he says as he looks at the song, "Knightmare Frame," he says as he listens to the song.

Kyon finishes the item a few minutes before 4:00. He stands up and puts on some of the hidden blades that he made, "All right," Kyon says as he grabs the item, puts it in a crate, and carries it out to his car, "time to get this to the address," he says as he looks at the address on his phone, "That's not too far from here," he says as he starts it, "I won't have to pay for shipping," he starts his car which is an old stick shift, and drives to the address. Once he reaches the address the first thing he notices is that it is dark and creepy, "I had better not get kidnapped," he whispers to himself as he walks in the house.

As soon as he reaches the front door he receives a text and takes out his phone to read it, "_Dude! I just beat ME3! :D but the ending sucked :(._"

He responds to it, "_WTH is ME3_?"

"_I forgot you don't play video games, it's mass effect 3, the most anticipated game of 2012._"

Kyon feels like face-palming but doesn't have a free hand, "_I'm trying to deliver something_," he texts back, "_I'll see you at school_," he puts his phone away and opens the door to a dark room.

A strange African sounding voice calls out, "Do you have it?" he asks.

"The massive tuning fork is right here made almost exactly to your specifications," he says.

"Almost?" The voice asks back sounding quite happily.

"Yeah," Kyon says, "I noticed that a few energy transfer circuits were cut off in the design, so I opened them up."

"Good," the voice says as a box slides to Kyon, "now the final piece, put that inside of the rings," Kyon takes an orb of light from the box and puts it inside of the rings.

At first nothing happens, but then the orb starts melting and the rings start rotating around the ball, "You are the one," he says.

"Wait what?" Kyon asks, "who are you?" he asks as the voice steps into the light created by the ball.

"Not a question of who am I," he says, "but what am I, I am prothean," he says as his face is revealed and shows to have 4 eyes and an oddly shaped head.

"What the fuck?" Kyon asks, "I'm paid to make something for an alien?" he then fears that he won't see Jane again and texts her the address that he's at along with, "if I'm not in school look for me here."

"No," the prothean says, "you made that for yourself," he says as he walks over to Kyon and puts his hand on the device activating it and making the rings spin faster, "I hope, that we may see each other again Mr. Salgrens."

"Wait... what?" Kyon asks as he feels his body tingle and shoot him to an unknown location.

* * *

><p><strong>We can't let him have all the information, if we do it would destroy his mind. We don't know how it will affect the past either.<strong>

**We need to give him every advantage possible. The others are already compromised, we didn't realize the truth behind indoctrination fast enough.**

**How many times does this make it? How many times have we changed the past?**

**I don't know, my memories of the timelines are beginning to become muddled. We thought one was enough, but he fell victim to insanity from not being able to trust anyone. Indoctrination found him to be an easy target. We sent others, but they changed too many variables. I fear this will be our last attempt at changing the past, anymore, and we may just destroy everything that we hope to save, Commander.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Shepard!" Ashley yells as the commander hits the floor, but then she sees another man to her left that hadn't been there a few moments ago, "LT who's that?"

Kaiden looks at the orange haired boy in question and walks over to check his pulse, "He's alive," Kaiden says, "let's get the Normandy down here and we can question him later," Kaiden calls in the Normandy, while Ashley tries to pick up the commander. After about 3 minutes Kaiden helps the commander to the Normandy then grabs the young man who appeared suddenly and became surprised by his weight, "This guy is pretty heavy," he says as he strains to carry him to the elevator.

"Need help LT?" Ashley asks as she steps in the elevator, she notices the red hair, "A rare breed these days," she says as she presses the elevator up.

"This guy weighs a ton," Kaiden says as he leans on the railing with the strange man still on his back, "how do you think he ended up right there?"

"I don't know, but he doesn't have a scratch on him," Ashley says, "and he just appeared out of nowhere,"

The elevator arrives at the crew deck and Kaiden carries the man to the med bay, "Doc here is the other one," he says as he lays the man on the bed.

"Let's see who he is," Chakwas says as she scans him but the results come up negative, "that's strange..." she says as she scans him again, but the results are the same.

"What is doc?" Kaiden asks.

"He doesn't seem to have any records at all," she responds, "it wasn't a faulty scan, and these instruments are state-of-the-art, fresh off the factory lines."

"Well, can you scan him for any medical implants?" Ashley asks.

"Sure," Chakwas replies as she does just that, "Only one," she says, "but it seems to do all the things that need to be done and then some,"

"What do you mean?" Kaiden asks confused.

"Well it seems to act like a translator as well, and several other functions that I don't know about," Chawkwas says, "I'd like to keep him onboard to study the implant more."

"Sure thing doc," Kaiden says, "if you don't mind I think I'll stay here until the commander wakes up."

"If you want Kaiden" Chakwas says, "but if you try to shake her awake I'll throw you out faster than you can say 'migraine'"

"I understand doctor," Kaiden says as he sits next to Shepard.

* * *

><p><strong>Inside Kyon's head.<strong>

Kyon was looking at what looks like a green sphere in the middle of a white room, "Where could I be?" he asks and his voice echos, but no one answers so he moves to the green sphere, I won't destroy the world if I touch this then right? he asks himself as he puts his finger into it. Surprised when it passes through the orb, but then the sphere opens up revealing a language that he has never seen before.

"What the hell?" he asks and again it echos. he touches a blinking light, and the orb wraps itself around Kyon, I don't want die! he yells as he tries to get out, but it moves with him keeping him in the center of the sphere.

Kyon calms down a little, Think Kyon, pressing the blinking light got you into this, pressing it again must get you out, he concludes, then looks for the blinking button, Ah there it is, he says in his head as he presses another blinking light, but instead of letting him out he started seeing visions of some squid like object in the sky destroying countless people, but they looked like the thing that sent him here, "What in the eternal Dragon's name, is this?" he asks.

"This is our past," a collective of voices tell him, "and your future if you fail."

"What?" Kyon asks as he feels himself slipping into consciousness.

"You will make the choice."


	3. Chapter 3

**By now, you have all asked, 'Have I read this before?' The answer is yes. I had it up, then took it down for some editing. Anyway, I'm going to try to stick to a schedule, but anyone that has followed me for a while know how long that lasts. Anyway, without further ado, another chapter of EE... Oh and another thing... All those that hated Michael for all he did... well, let's just say that his story arc in this has been improved... all those that have no idea, you'll find out soon enough.**

* * *

><p><strong>Normandy Med room 14.5 hours after Eden prime.<strong>

Kyon started to stir when he heard a man with a strained voice say, "Look doc, he's waking up," Kyon looked at the man, and saw the funniest looking hair-style, and began laughing, "Well, he seems fine."

"Your...hair," Kyon gasped between breaths, "Elvis called... he wants his style back!" After a minute, Kyon was able to take a deep breath.

Kaiden gave the red-head civilian a bone chilling glare, "Hey kid I don't think you want to make fun of a biotic."

Kyon looked at Elvis head, and tilted his head, "What the hell is a biotic?" Kyon asked, not really sure what it meant. "So what you are alive? So am I."

Both Kaiden and Chakwas look at the clueless man in front of them, "You've never heard of a biotic?" Chakwas asks as she pulls out a data-pad.

"Unless you are talking about the term meaning alive? No, I haven'." Kyon rolled his neck, and felt a few pops, "Oh, that felt good. Hey doc, where am I?"

"What's your name?" the doctor asks ignoring his question.

Kyon's eyes twitched a little when she shruged off his question, "Kyon Salgrins," he tells her, "Now... where... am... I?" he questions making sure they can understand him.

"Where was the last place you remember being?" Chakwas asks still ignoring his question.

Kyon was giving the doctor the good old-fashioned stink-eye, "In a house making a delivery to..." the man stops, physically unable to tell them about the Prothean.

_You must not tell them about us yet_, a voice tells him as the two look at him weirdly.

"A delivery to what?" Kaiden asked, thinking that the kid was trying to come up with a good lie.

"I was making a delivery to a customer," Kyon answered telling the man a half-truth.

Chakwas was not satisfied with the answer, "Who was your customer?" she asks making sure she gets everything down.

"I don't know," Kyon lies, but evidently the Elvis wannabe wasn't too happy with his answer.

"You are lying," he says as he crosses his arms, "who were you delivering to?"

"I can't tell you," Kyon says.

"Why not?" Kaiden's face was a clear give away that a migrain was starting to form in the back of his head..

"I just can't okay?" Kyon says as he tries to get up, but Kaiden keeps him on the bed.

"Why not?" he asks again.

"Let go!" Kyon yells as he lights up green and forces Kaiden into the wall.

Kaiden became dazed by the unexpected biotic display, and Chakwas was staring wide-eyed at Kyon, "What was that?" she asks the him.

Kyon stares at the space that Kaiden had been in a moment before, "I don't know," he says as he gets up and runs out of the room and into a woman.

"Whoa there," she says, "you okay?" she asks him, but Kyon just runs past her as well hoping to find somewhere to hide. Ashley then looks at Kaiden on the floor and Chakwas trying to help him up, "What just happened?" she asks.

"That's what I would like to know," the doctor responded, "it looked like biotics, but they were green."

Ashley turned to go find the boy who had run off, "Did you get his name?" she asks.

"Kyon Salgrins," Chakwas says.

Kyon had run into an elevator and took it to a room that was lower than the ones earlier. When the elevator finally opens up Kyon sees a giant tank looking thing and climbs on top of it and sits down, "What the hell was that?" he asks himself as he looks at his hands.

a few minutes later the elevator comes down and Ashley steps out, "Where did he go?" she asks herself as she looks around. She eventually found him on top of the Mako, "Hey Kyon," she says as she climbs on top as well.

"How do you know my name?" Kyon asks her as he looks away from his hands.

"The doc told me," Ashley says, "my name is Ashley Williams," she says as she holds out her hand, thinking that there would be no harm in being nice.

"Nice to meet you," Kyon says as he shakes her hand, "Where are we?" he asks.

"We are on the SSV Normandy SR1," Ashley tells him as she releases his hand.

"Where exactly is that?" Kyon asks,

"In space," Ashley says with a raised eyebrow.

You are in the future, the voices say to him in unison,

What the fuck? Kyon asks in his head, "Oh I should have known," he says as he face-palms, I will kill that Prothean son of a bitch!

"Yeah," Ashley laughs a little, "bet you didn't expect that," she says.

"Not in the slightest," Kyon says, "is it all right if I'm left alone?"

"Sure I have to get something to eat anyway," Ashley jumps off the Mako and looks at Kyon, "it was nice meeting you kid," she says, as she walks towards the elevator.

Kyon takes out his phone and looks at his messages, and sees it is uploading all messages, "How long?" he asked himself, staring at his phone. When it finally finished uploading the messages he dropped the, now considered antique, phone, "Over 150 years," he says.

* * *

><p><strong>AN Hey everybody Arias here, I just wanted to thank you all for reading and following The Engineer Effect, it makes me happy to know that so many people... FF wants me to use 'Is interested,' but that doesn't follow word flow, so I'm going to say... are interested in this story, anyway, I hoped you like this chapter, and if you could, please review so that I can correct any mistakes.**

**Hunter out.**


	4. Chapter 4

Kyon looked at his phone again and read when the messages stopped coming, "Three years," he says, "that's how long it took her to give up on me," he silently cursed himself for the pain he must have caused her. "I took three years of her life," he repeated, not sure whether to feel sorry or angry at himself.

Kyon stood up and saw a work bench near the edge of the cargo bay, he moved towards it. The first thing he noticed was that there were several guns on the work bench, "Wonder what this does?" he asked aloud as he presses a button on the side of the gun. The large rifle collapsed to nearly half its size, "That's nice," he commented, pressing the button again to unfold it. "Let's see how this works," he reached up to grab his goggles, and noticed that they weren't there. He cursed himself for losing them, and shook his head. He took a deep breath, and then started taking the gun apart

* * *

><p>Ashley knew the commander was awake after she saw Anderson walk into the med bay, She waited a few minutes when Anderson exited, followed by Shepard, "Hey commander," she says in a friendly voice.<p>

"Williams why is Kaiden in the med bay?" she asks in a harsh tone.

"A guy we picked up was trying to leave but Kaiden wouldn't let him," Ashley says, "and threw him into the wall," she says.

Shepard looked furious, "Who and where is he?" she asks.

Ashley, surprised by her anger, hesitated for a moment, "Don't worry Shepard I talked to him already," she says, "I don't think he expected it to happen, and if you want we can just let him off on the citadel."

"Fine... but if I see him he will regret it," Shepard told her, then walked towards the bridge.

Ashley decided that it would be best to have a talk with Kyon again, and started towards the elevator.

* * *

><p>Ashley walked out of the elevator to the cargo bay and saw Kyon working at the weapons bench, "What are you doing?" she asked walking up to him.<p>

Kyon jumped, not noticing Ashley until she spoke up, and sent the parts everywhere, "Son of a Bitch!" he shouted after a barrel fell on his foot. He turned around only to see Ashley laughing silently, "Really?"

"I didn't expect that," she tells him as he takes his goggles off and looks at her, she immediately notices his emerald eyes, she made a mental note that his eyes looked nice.

"Something on your mind?" Kyon asked after noticing her staring at his eyes.

Ashley cursed herself, and turned away to hide her blush, "Clean the mess up," she ordered him, "I don't like it when people use my station and leave it a mess."

"Sure thing," Kyon says, "just wanted to see a few things," he picks up the pieces of the gun and puts them back together while Ashley turned back around and watched.

"How long have you been putting guns like that together?" she asked Kyon after he finished putting it together in 40 seconds.

"Today," Kyon replied as he put the tools he used back, and sat on a crate, and Ashley looked at him, and let her mouth drop open.

"It took me about 1 hour when I was a cadet," Ashley says, "how did you do that?"

Kyon laughed a little, "I have low latent inhibition," he replied, putting the gun back on the bench, "I see things that most people don't," he says.

"Well, we are about to hit the Citadel," she says, "we are going to drop you off there."

As soon as Ashley said the citadel, Kyon heard the word, Trap, in his head, "Sure thing," he says, as he stands up and heads to the elevator.

Ashley follows him and notices that each stride he makes is perfectly equal, "Did you train somewhere?" she asks him.

"I was in Kendo a while back," Kyon answered when they get into the elevator.

"Oh," Ashley says as the elevator goes up, "So what was your level?" she asks.

"I was only a month away from becoming a Nanadan level," Kyon told her and shrugged, "Then I got real busy and had to put up my gi. That was about a year ago."

"That sounds like quite an accomplishment," Ashley commented as the door opened up. The two of them walked out of the elevator

"nearly twenty years of my life," Kyon agreed as he rolled his neck, "I feel bad for having to stop, but it couldn't be helped," he walks to the cockpit of the Normandy and watches as the Citadel comes into view.

Ashley looks out the window with Shepard next to her while Kyon stood next to the pilot's seat, "Look at the size of that ship!" she exclaims.

Kaiden who is on the other side of the seat with a bandage around his head informs us, "The Ascension, flagship of the Citadel fleet."

The pilot doesn't look at it, "Well, size isn't everything," he says.

"Why so touchy Joker?" Ashley asked the pilot as she smirked.

"I'm just saying you need the power too," Joker said defensively.

"Look at that monster!" Ashley practically shouts, "Its main gun could rip through the barriers of any ship in the Alliance fleet."

"Doesn't matter if you can't hit the ship," Kyon comments as he looks at it, "doubt it could hit a group of fighters, have enough and they will be more dangerous than a dreadnought."

Everyone looks at Kyon and Shepard asks, "Who's this?" as she looks at the red-head.

"Kyon Salgrins," Kaiden answered for him, glaring at the red-headed man.

Shepard walks up to Kyon and grabs him by the collar, "You hurt my crew, then we have a problem," she says.

"Not my fault. Your boyfriend over there wouldn't leave me alone," Kyon told her in a matter-of-fact tone and. His comment results in Kaiden blushing, and the gunnery chief laughing at the comment.

Shepard glares at him, "You have some nerve," she says as she glows a faint blue.

Ashley looks at Kyon and Shepard their red hair, and emerald eyes matching, "If I didn't know any better I would say you two were brother and sister," she commented getting glares from both of the red-heads, and a laugh from Joker.

"Commander the Normandy has docked," Joker says when he stops laughing.

"Good," she says letting go of Kyon, "now you get off this ship," she says.

"Gladly," Kyon says as he heads towards the airlock, when an older man comes into the .

"Shepard I want you and the ground team to come with me," he says.

"Yes, sir," Shepard replied, saluting the higher officer, "Ashley, Kaiden, get ready," she goes to the cargo bay.

Ashley and Kaiden both follow Shepard, and Kyon exits through the air-lock.

* * *

><p><strong>AN Arias here, Nice to see that, obviously I have Shepard as a female and is an adept, with default appearance, and I will have fun with their similar physical features.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Just like when I originally posted this story, chapters four and five were released on the same day, talk about deja vu. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter of EE, and I'm only commening on this to keep the word count over a thousand :)**

* * *

><p>Kyon had gotten off of the longest elevator ride of his life when he entered a room that had C-sec on the wall, and stopped because a bird type creature held his hand up, and spoke in an alien language, "What?" Kyon asked the thing and it repeated. What it was saying wasn't like any language Kyon had ever heard, "I don't understand you," Kyon says.<p>

The alien sighed and called over a human, "Identification please.".

"Kyon Salgrins," he answered and the bird creature pressed a commands into the terminal he was using, but nothing came up.

"Sir, you are not in any known databases," the woman announced, "and you don't have a translator, would you care to explain this to us?" she asks him.

_They can not know_, a voice in his head rang, _tell them that you are an ex-slave_, they ordered

Not wanting to deal with any trouble, Kyon knew that it was his best solution, "Because I only escaped slavery a few weeks ago," Kyon answered, looking down. He instantly got sympathetic looks from the two officers. Kyon thought about the consequences he would face if anyone found out he was lying, but thought that he would have to deal with it if that scenario came up..

"I understand," the woman told Kyon, her voice suddenly becoming gentler, she gestured for her alien coworker to move, and began creating a profile for Kyon. "Take these," she gave Kyon what looked like a clear sleeve, and a headset, "They should help you get around until you get a translation implant."

Kyon nodded, "Thank you," he replied, walking past them. He saw a sign that said '_the wards_' and follows it to another elevator.

Kyon, amazed by how many people seemed to rush through the streets of the citadel, stepped out of the elevator after it opened, "Damn..." he trailed, fading into the crowd and tried to navigate through the mob of business. Kyon wondered how many people were in this one area, and tried to leave the crowd. Kyon walked up to a balcony saw the citadel from the area he is at and is in awe, "My home town has nothing on this," he says as he looks out of the balcony and leaned on the railing.

Below the balcony he saw what looked like a girl in a spacesuit running from a blue woman and some horned frog looking things with dog legs. He looked for a way down and saw some nearby roof tops that descended in the direction that they are running. Kyon jumps over the railing and rolled as he landed on the roof. He started running, he preformed a speed vault over an AC unit, and a wall run over a gap. He jumped off the wall in the middle of the wall run in order to grab the roof he was aiming for.

Tali was running through the wards as Saren's men chased her not wanting to look back. She ran as fast as she could through the wards and ran down an alley.

Kyon jumped over a narrow gap then turned to run on the rooftop above the Alley that the girl ran into.

The girl ran into a dead-end, and Saren's men caught up to her. She turned around and drew her shotgun, "Stay back!" she shouted, her voice slightly distorted by her suit.

The asari laughed, "You think you can hurt us with that puny thing?" she asks as she pulls out a shotgun normally reserved for krogan.

She let out an audible gulp, and there was only one option if she wanted to live. She would have to make them think she was going to give them what they wanted. She holstered her shotgun and prepared a disc grenade.

Kyon had jumped off the roof of the building and onto a fire escape and began climbing down as he saw the girl put away her gun, but the blue woman kept hers aimed on her prey. As soon as he was low enough Kyon jumped off the fire escape and extended the wrist blades that he had from before he was sent to the future and stabs both of the frog creatures in the back of the neck forcing them into the ground and killing them.

The asari turns around and aims her shotgun but sees nothing, but soon ends up on her back as an unseen enemy sweeps her legs out from under her, "Why are you chasing her?" Kyon asked, as he pinning her to the ground with one arm, and using the other to throw the shotgun out of her reach.

The girl was surprised by Kyon's appearance, but not ungrateful, for all she knew the man just saved her life. The asari's shotgun landed at her feet, and she picked it up.

The tentacle haired woman laughed at Kyon, "Foolish human," she told him as she began glowing blue. She threw Kyon into the wall, "now you are-" There was a loud bang, and the asari went flying.

Kyon was dazed, but he knew what had happened, "Thanks," he told her, trying to stand up again.

Tali helps the man stand, "I should be the one thanking you," she replied, "not many people will help a quarian,"

"Helping someone shouldn't depend on their race," Kyon told her, and saw a hole in her arm, "Let's get you to a hospital," he told her as they exited the alley. He saw a sign outside of the alley that pointed towards a clinic.

"I think that's a good idea," Tali says, "My name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya," she says, "but you can call me Tali,"

"Kyon Salgrins," he tells her as he leads her towards the clinic.


	6. Chapter 6

The headache Kyon had from being thrown into the wall, finally dissipated, and he looked at Tali, "Why were they chasing you?" he asked as they started going up some stairs.

"I have information on a SPECtre named Saren," Tail says, "something that could get his specter status revoked," she explains.

"I'm guessing the goon squad meant to make sure you didn't get the information into the right hands," Kyon concluded as they reached the clinic.

Tali turned her head, and looked at Kyon in confusion, "What?" she asked, her voice laced with confusion.

"The people after you," Kyon explained, evidently some idioms that he had been accustomed saying weren't widely known in the galactic society, "Goon squad is a human idiom."

"Oh," Tali says as Kyon opens the door and they go inside.

* * *

><p>Shepard had just gotten through C-sec, it seems that carrying so many weapons onto the Citadel wasn't standard procedure, and it took at least an hour just to get through customs, "That was the longest fucking wait of my life," she commented, as they called a cab from the rapid transit terminal, so that they could get to the human embassy faster.<p>

When they got to the human embassy, they were admitted into the ambassador's officer immediately. Udina was yelling at the council for what felt like hours when he heard the doors open, but didn't pay attention to the new comers until he was done yelling at the council, and he was surprised to see Anderson with three armored soldiers, "I see, you've brought your entire crew with you, captain Anderson."

Anderson was a little perturbed that the ambassador was talking like this, "Just the ground team, in case you had any questions."

Shepard tuned out the rest of the conversation, because she didn't want to listen to the whiney voice belonging to the ambassador, and came back when Ashley voiced her opinion on politicians.

"Come on let's get to the council hearing," Shepard ordered as she moves towards the doors.

* * *

><p>Kyon was leaning on the wall as he tried to process what the hell was happening to him. He was obviously in the future, considering that humans still existed, and that they spoke english. There were at least five other races, which wasn't a lot considering how long the galaxy existed, and the fact that it only took humans a few thousand years to develop space travel. No, something happened to the other races. Galactic war? No, that would only result in the loss of maybe one or two races. Something was keeping the number of races in this galaxy low, but what? Kyon shrugged, then looked at the doctor who was fixing up Tali's arm. Tali was obviously important if a SPECtre wanted her dead, even if Kyon didn't know what a SPECtre was, he knew that it was bad news for her.<p>

Kyon stood off the wall after she finished fixing Tali's arm, "You should be good for now, I'll let you go after a few more minutes, so I can make sure infection doesn't set in."

"I understand," Tali responded as she nodded, "Thank you doctor Michelle, Kyon." She turned her head to him, and nodded.

"You're welcome," Both the doctor and Kyon said together. Kyon turned to the doctor, "I need to ask a few things."

"Sure thing," the doctor nodded, taking his tone of voice, and moving over to where Tali wouldn't be able to see them. "What did you need?"

"I was wondering, how many species have space flight capacity?"

"About ten, why?"

"That doesn't make sense," Kyon said quietly, "there is something wrong with the galaxy if there are only a couple handfuls of species with FTL capacity, especially this late in time."

"There were other species, but they are extinct now. Like the Protheans."

Kyon's eyes widened when he heard the word _Prothean_, "Protheans? Has anyone ever seen one before?"

"No, they died out over fifty-thousand years ago, before even the asari had FTL capabilities."

Kyon crossed his arms, and thought about what it meant. He was sent here by a Prothean, but they died fifty-thousand years ago, which means some survived. He shrugged, "Alright, I think that's all I needed to know. Doctor, do you know of anyway we can get Tali some protection from Saren?"

"You can take her to Fist, he the head of the gang in this district of the Citadel. He bases himself out of Chora's Den. He is an agent for the Shadow Broker, and the shadow broker deals in information. You'll be able to trade it for protection."

"Alright, I'll take her there after she can leave."

"Why are you helping her?" Michelle asked, "most people would turn a blind eye to a quarian in trouble."

"That is what is wrong with this world," Kyon said as he closed his eyes, "too many people who do nothing when someone else is in trouble."

"You are a good man Mr. Salgrins," the doctor said as she put a hand on his shoulder, "Don't let that change."

After talking with Dr. Michelle, Kyon and Tali went to Chora's den to talk with the owner, a gang boss named, Fist, "I don't care if you run a gang, Fist is the worst name ever." Kyon comments as they walk to the Den.

"Do you think we can trust Fist?" Tali asks.

Kyon laughs a little, "I wouldn't trust a man named fist, let alone someone I know runs a gang," he says, "can you modify my earpiece to be a comm device?" He asks.

"Sure, why?" Tali asked

"Because if he doesn't know about me, then I can surprise him if he tries anything," Kyon explains as he gives her the translator.

Tali says something, but Kyon can't understand it. She then opens up the earpiece and starts working on it

Kyon was a little annoyed that he couldn't understand Tali at the moment, but that problem wasn't a problem after she handed him back his translator, "Thanks," he said, putting the Head-piece back on his head.

"No problem," Tali says, "Now let's go meet this Fist."


	7. Chapter 7

Kyon watched Tali enter Chora's Den after deciding it was best for him to wait a few minutes before he going inside. He looked around, and saw an empty booth near the office... and a giant lizard looking thing. Kyon turned on his earpieace so that he could listen to Tali and Fist's conversation.

"_I heard you have data on Saren_," Fist's voice announced, his voice being overly commanding and layered with his unintellectual personality. Kyon could tell that this man was driven by money, and that he would do anything for the right price. He leaned away from the lizard alien, hiding his earpiece as he pressed it into his ear to understand them more clearly

Kyon knew that Tali would be nervous and wasn't surprised when he heard her stutter, "_Y...Yes," _She then put on an air of calmness "_I have the data, and I will trade it for a safe place to hide,_" she told the gangster.

"_Give me the data, and I'll make sure you are taken care of." _Kyon didn't like how he phrased that last

"_No_,_ I want to meet with the Shadow Broker directly."_

"_I don't work for the shadow broker,_"

"_Dr. Michelle told me otherwise,_" Kyon hoped that Tali telling Fist that it was Dr. Michelle who told them to come to him, would bite them in the ass, or harm the doctor._ "Now get me a meeting with the shadow broker,"_

_"Fine,"_ Fist says, _"but it won't be easy to do, we'll meet you in an alley in an hour,_"

Kyon watched Tali exit Fist's office, then walk out of Chora's Den. After a few minutes, Kyon stood up, and followed her. She sat on a bench next to the markets, and looked up when she heard him approach "So what do you think?" she asked as Kyon sits on the bench facing the opposite way as her.

"I think he can't be trusted," Kyon answered truthfully, "a dark alley, in a place where no one comes, a set up for sure."

"What if it isn't a lie?" Tali asked, "We can't just walk out on the trade."

"I know," Kyon said pensively, "I'll go scout the place out," he told her, "try to act natural."

* * *

><p>Fist ordered one of his men to lock the door, then turned on the holographic projector. A life-sized image of Saren appeared in front of him"Saren I found the Quarian," Fist says, "I'm arranging a meeting with her in one hour."<p>

"_Good,_" Saren says, "_make sure there is no path to her_," he ordered fist, "_if anyone finds out, you are not going to like the consequences."_

Fist gulped, "Sure thing," he replied to Saren then turned off the holographic projector, "You heard him," He looked at one of his lieutenants, "Grab some men, and go take care of Doctor Michelle."

The man nodded and walked into the hall outside of the office to grab some weapons.

* * *

><p>Shepard had just gotten out of the meeting with the council when Anderson and Udina pointed her to Harkin, telling her that to see if he knew where the detective assigned the Saren case was. She took her team to the nearest Rapid Transit terminal, and took a cab to the Wards towards Chora's Den.<p>

Once there they saw two Krogan arguing over something, about a guy named Fist, "What was that?" Kaiden asks.

"I don't know," Ashley responds, "let's just try not to get caught in the middle of it."

Shepard grunted as she moved over to a C-sec officer, and asked, "You Harkin?"

"Why do you want to know?" It was evident that Harkin was drunk, and he shook his head. He smiled lewdly at Shepard, "Ah, you are military. You know I could've been one of you, but I chose to be C-sec instead. Why don't you sit that fine ass down, and stay a while." Harkin patted his lap, it was obvious that he was desperate, and Shepard hid her disgust of the man for the time being.

She stepped forward, and sat down next to Harkin, "Mr. Harkin, I just need to know one thing..." She told him, sliding her hand up his leg. "Where is Garrus Vakarian?" She grabbed his scrotum, and gave it a firm tug. The man started squirming in her grasp, and she smiled sadistically.

* * *

><p>Kyon had scouted out the Alley way that Tali was supposed to meet the Shadow broker, and went back to the market place, "It is a narrow long hallway," Kyon tells Tali as he sits down on the bench next to her, "would be hard to escape it you weren't prepared, and alone."<p>

"Lucky for me I'm not alone," Tali says, "and we'll be ready."

"Right," Kyon agreed as he brought up a map of the area on the Omni-tool, a very handy function once you get used to the holographic display, "There is a catwalk right here that would give me a good vantage point over the entire area, but it's open and if they look up, they'll see me."

Tali looks at the map, "I see how that would be a problem," she says, "what if you hid in one of the crates right here?" she asks.

"I could do that," Kyon says, "but if they sit on it then I won't be of any use until they stand up," he looks at the map again, "I also won't be at any use at a range," Kyon thought aloud, placing a hand on the shotgun Tali gave him "so that puts behind these crates out of the discussion."

"Yeah," Tali says, "and if you try to hide here you are out in the open," she says.

"Your call," Kyon says, "in the crate or on the catwalk?"

* * *

><p>After Shepard beat the up Harkin, and threw him into a gutter, she took her team to the clinic. She heard shouting on the other side of the door, and took out her pistol, "Ashley I'll open the door, and throw a warp, you lay down covering fire as long as the Dr. isn't in the way, Kaiden as soon as the warp hits I want you to use a throw."<p>

"Aye, Aye," they responded. Shepard readied herself to open the door, but then she hears gunfire. Cursing she opens it almost instantly to see Dr. Michelle on the floor and Garrus in a fire fight with the Mercs. Shepard throws a warp and Ashley lays down covering fire.

As soon as the Warp made contact with the merc she was aiming at, Kaiden uses a throw, the two biotic attacks created a biotic explosion knocking the other mercs back, "Is the doctor all right?" Shepard asked the Turian as he put his talons on her neck to check for a pulse. He shakes his head, signifying her death, "Damn it!" She shouted, then she hears a groan, and looks over to see that one of the mercenaries was still alive.

The leader of the Fist's lackies was on the floor, amazingly unharmed as Shepard picks him up by the collar and pins him against the wall, "I ain't telling you anything!" he yells as Shepard puts her pistol into his face.

"You'll tell me why you killed the doctor," Shepard says in a low and threatening voice, "or I'll shoot you one limb at a time, starting with the most important one," she moves the pistol in between his crotch.

The man's eyes widen as she threatens his testes, "I'll talk!" he shouts, his voice cracking as she presses the gun's barrel firmly against them.

"Then start talking," she says, "you have 5 seconds before the three inches you have are gone."

"We were sent here to make sure she didn't tell anyone about the quarian," he says frantically.

"Why were you ordered to kill her?" Shepard asked giving him a little scare by shooting the gun just below his crotch.

"The quarian had information that proved Saren was a traitor!" the man squeaked.

"Who do you work for?" she asked.

"Fist!" he the man spits out.

Garrus speaks up, "Fist works for the shadow broker,"

"Not anymore," the man told them, "Saren offered more money than the shadow broker, and he took the offer."

"Fist must be an idiot to betray the shadow broker," Garrus says, "do you know where he sent the quarian?"

"No," the man says obviously outliving his usefulness.

"Then you are no longer needed," Shepard said putting the pistol to the man's temple. She pulled the trigger, killing him instantly, "Let's pay this Fist a visit," she says as she let's the man's body crumple to the floor.

"Wait, Shepard let me come with you," Garrus said holding out his hand to stop them.

"Why do you want to come?" Shepard asked, her eyebrow shooting up.

"If you're taking down Saren I want in," he answered, "I don't care if he is a fellow turian, if he has broken the law I'm taking him down." It was obvious he was pissed that doctor Michelle was dead, and he wanted some payback.

"Welcome aboard," Shepard says getting a displeased look from Ashley.

"I think we'll need more fire power if we are going to take down the Den," Kaiden commented, "Don't get me wrong, having Shepard here is like bringing a one man army, but we don't know the terrain."

"What about that Krogan bounty hunter?" Ashley asked, somewhat hesitantly.

"His name is Wrex," Garrus replied, "and he's at the C-sec academy right now,"

"A Krogan may be useful," Shepard said, "To C-sec," she walked out of the clinic, and to the nearest Rapid transit terminal,

* * *

><p><strong>Making up for the short chapters at the beginning with this one, and chances are that they are just going to get longer as we go on, so hang with me guys. Thank you all for following and favoriting, it means a lot that so many people like this story. Leave some reviews so I can attempt to get better at writing, or drop some ideas for cool things that you would like to see. I have a strange knack for creating items from other universes using ME physics and explaining them in a way that makes sense.<strong>

**Arias out!**


	8. Chapter 8

Kyon climbed up to the catwalk above the meeting place, and waited in silence for Fist's men to arrive, "_Any sign of them, Kyon?_" Tali asked from the alley below. He could tell that she was nervous, because of a slight undertone caused by the suit. She was standing behind some crates so that she was hidden from view from anyone that just looked in.

"No not..." he stops short when he sees two of the frog looking aliens and one of the avian types walk into the alley, "scratch that, they are here, earlier than expected," he comments, "seems like they're anxious."

"_All right_," Tali responded, "_I'm walking out of cover." _

"Understood," Kyon says, "be careful,"

"_I can take care of myself,_" Tali responded, there was a click, and he knew she cut the channel. He took a deep breath, and stayed in the shadows, and hopefully out of sight.

* * *

><p>Shepard stood just outside of Chora's Den with her team behind her. Kaiden whistled quietly, "Looks like it's closed."<p>

"They're expecting us," Wrex said in an overly loud fashion. It was clear he wanted everyone inside to know they were there, "Looks like it will be a good fight," he smiles.

Shepard smiles, Good more things to kill, she thinks as she draws her pistol, "Wrex, Ashley, and I will rush in and cause some chaos. Kaiden you stay in the middle and cause a biotic explosion when you see the chance; Garrus stay in the back and take out anything we miss," Shepard commanded, readying herself to open the door.

Wrex draws his shotgun, as does Ashley, "We're ready," the gunnery chief says as she checks her gun.

Garrus took a position a few feet behind Kaiden who had a pistol out, pointed towards the ground, "I'm ready," Garrus said, checking his scope to make sure it was good.

"Same here," Kaiden announces as he starts to glow.

Wrex and Shepard glow as well, "Opening... Now!" she yells as she presses the control and runs in with Wrex and Ashley opening fire on a merc who was unlucky enough to be stationed in front of the door, hitting him in the neck causing him to fall and choke on his own blood.

Wrex had moved to the left as soon as the door opened and opened fire on one of the mercs who had popped up from behind the bar, sending him into the wall, then grabbing another human and throwing him to the floor, before stepping on his head and crushing it with a satisfying crunch.

Ashley had moved to the right and hit one of the mercs who tried to surprise her with the butt of the shotgun breaking his nose before he could fire on her, then taking out her pistol, and shot him in the head.

Kaiden had used a throw on a merc that was behind cover sending him out, but before he could finish the job there was the crack of a sniper rifle, and a proud, "Scoped and dropped!" from behind him.

Garrus had just shot the man, who Kaiden threw out of cover, and turned his rifle to one of the mercs that were on top of the bar, and scoring another headshot, saying his calling card again. He took cover to let his rifle cool down.

Shepard had run around the bar and came face to face with a Krogan who decided to charge her and shout, "I am Krogan!" this made Shepard laugh internally as her fist glowed with biotics and she punched the krogan sending him flying.

"Not so tough," she commented as she grabs the head-plate of the krogan bouncer, and with the help of biotics, tears it right off of his head, the krogan didn't realize what had happened until it was too late, and started screaming and bawling, Shepard sneered at the wreck of a krogan, and proceeded to bash his skull in with his own head-plate.

Once the raid was over Shepard, covered in krogan blood, threw the head-plate into a corner somewhere, "Let's go find Fist," she says as she opens the door to see dock workers.

They were about to draw their guns, but Shepard caps both of them. She moves on towards the door to Fist's office. As soon as she opened the door, she heard, "If you want something done, you have to do it yourself!" from a very annoying man, and the sound of turrets activating

It doesn't take long for Shepard's team to destroy the turrets, and cause Fist to surrender, "Please don't hurt me!" he practically shrieks like a little girl.

Shepard walks up to him and kicks him to the ground, "Where is the quarian?" she asks.

"I don't know where she is," Fist says.

"He's of no use to us," Wrex says as he looks at his shotgun, "let me kill him."

"Wait!" Fist cries, "I don't know where she is, but I know where she might be."

"Then Talk!" Shepard shouts as she stomps on his crotch.

Fist curls up in the fetus position, "She's in an alley, but Saren's men should already be there," he gets out.

"Thank you for your service," Shepard told him, "all yours," she told Wrex, then she starts to walk out.

There is a nice sound of a shotgun and a scream, the others walk out, "Was that necessary?" Ashley asks.

"I don't care if it was necessary, he deserved it," Shepard says, "let's go, we need to save that evidence," she sprints out of the Den, and into a mob of people. The team decimates the them not long after they enter the bar. This fact is due to Shepard's unintentional distraction of pulling a Leroy Jenkins.

* * *

><p>Kyon was waiting for a few more minutes when Tali said, "Where's fist? Where's the shadow broker?" the turian walked up to her and rubbed his hand on her arm.<p>

"They'll be here soon," he responds, leering at her. It was clear that the man had a thing for qurians, and his tone indicated he had ill intentions.

Tali hit his hand away from her, "Deal's off!" she turned around, and began to walk away.

The turian drew his weapon, and readied to shoot her. Kyon jumped off of the catwalk and flicked his hand, and the hidden blade extended. He saw that he wouldn't be able to stop him from firing, and shouted, "No you don't!"

The avian alien looked up, just like Kyon predicted he would do, and saw him sailing through the air, on a collision course with him. He shifted his body to aim at Kyon, but doesn't get the chance to pull the trigger. Because he moved, Kyon's hidden blade went through the shoulder joint of the armor, instead of the neck. This alteration in Kyon's plans, sent the two men to the floor.

Kyon rolled off of the alien, and took his shotgun from behind his back, but the avian did so as well. The two of them fired at the same time. Kyon took two shots into the shoulder, while the alien took the entire salvo of the shotgun spread. Kyon fell to the floor writing in pain as his opponent slumped to the floor dead. He heard gunfire coming from both directions, then Tali kneeling down behind him.

"Kyon?" she asked, looking at his shoulder, "Are you all right?"

Kyon's eyes were wide, and it was clear that he was in shock of getting shot. He tried to sit up, but Tali pushed him back to the floor.

"No, you are in shock don't get up," she ordered pinning him down by his arms him.

Kyon saw Ashley kneel next to him, and look at Tali, "Is he all right?" There was genuine concern in her voice, and she pulled out a needle looking thing from one of the pouches on her armor.

"He's in shock," Tali answered. Ashley stuck the needle into Kyon's shoulder, and injected a gel that numbed Kyon's body, and slowed the bleeding.

"Kyon will be fine," Ashley told Tali, trying to calm her down.

Shepard looks at Kyon in shock, "How in the hell..." she trails off then turns to the quarian, "do you still have evidence on Saren's involvement with the geth?" she asks.

"Who are you?" Tali asked.

"The person who saved your damned life!" Shepard shouted, causing Tali to nearly break down in fear, but she keeps her composure, and steps forward.

"Then I can repay you for saving me, and my friend," Tali responded, "my name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

"We should take this to the ambassadors office," Kaiden suggested.

"What about Kyon?" Ashley asks.

"We can take him to Dr. Michele," Tali suggests.

Garrus looked to the ground, "Dr. Michele is dead," he told them, a hint of guilt in his voice.

"We can take him back to Chakwas," Ashley suggested, putting her gun on her back.

Shepard mulled over it for a few seconds, "Fine, Ashley take him to Chakwas, the rest of you with me to the ambassador's office," she then walked out of the alley with the rest of the team and Tali.

Ashley carefully picked Kyon up, "Come one, let's get you back to the doc." She hoisted him over her shoulder, and started back to the _Normandy_


	9. Chapter 9

**In response to the guest review, having Kyon be related to Desomond would make this a crossover, and while I have played with the idea. I am hesitant to make this the cannon to this story.**

Kyon woke up in a familiar room, he chuckled as he looked around the medical room, "now this looks familiar," he commented, trying to sit up. his arm explodes in pain, and he remembers that he got shot by the alien. He laid back down and sighed, "That's right, I got shot..." he trailed off, and turned his head to see the doctor sitting behind a desk up, "Hey doc," he said with a smile

"Well, look who's back in town? Didn't think you would be back here anytime soon." Chakwas admitted, standing up, and walking over to him. She took out a syringe that looked like the one Ashley stuck in his shoulder.

"Not like I exactly had a choice, right?" Kyon asked rhetorically. "Doc, what is that stuff?

"It is called Medi-gel, haven't you ever seen some before?" Chakwas asked injecting it into his shoulder some medi-gel on his arm, "That should numb the pain," she tells him.

Kyon remembered his cover and sighed, "I didn't have that back in my slave days." He tried his best to sound like he didn't want to talk about it, and hoped that the doctor would leave the subject alone.

"Ah, yes. I remember reading about that in your file. It is very bare, you must have been in it until just recently. Which begs the question about the answers you gave me when you first arrived."

Kyon hit his head against the metal bed, "Doctor-patient confidentiality?" he asked her, hoping that those rules still applied in this day in age.

"I am bound by law to keep your files private, but I can't do that with the Commander now that she is a SpecTRe."

"What the hell is a SpecTRe?" He asked, tired of hearing that title so many times before, but not knowing what it meant. Kyon turned, and sat up, his legs hanging over the side of the metal cot.

"They are the force that is above the law, in order to protect the law and Citadel interests."

He thought about the explanation for a second, and sighed. "Sounds like too much power in the hands of one person. Granted, I see the need for it, but there is no way to control them if they go rogue. So, you going to put my arm in a sling?"

"No," she answered, "I performed a bone weave on your shoulder, it should be back to normal in a day or two. Now, what will your choice be?" she asked, drawing a confused brow from the man

"What choice?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.

"It seems your Quarian friend wants you to join us," Chakwas answers, "Shepard wouldn't refuse the help, but she made it clear that it was your choice."

_Help them_, the voices returned, _it is why you are here, _He sighed internally, wondering what the voices were.

He wondered why he had been listening to the voices, and then felt a huge headache hit him. He couldn't help but feel that if he didn't help, he would be subjected to worse things than headaches, "I think I'll stay for the time being," Kyon answered, "Tali seems to want to keep me around, and I'm sure whatever Shepard is doing, it's highly dangerous, right?" he asks.

"Nothing too dangerous," Chakwas chuckled, "just some hunting rouge specters, and an army of geth."

"Geth?" Kyon asked.

"I would ask Tali for more information," the doctor replied, "I'll inform Shepard about your choice. I think she wanted you to say, 'no,' but alas, it seems that our red-headed she-devil will be joined by another." She walks back to her desk, her movements very fluid. It was no doubt that she was up there in age, but she still looked fairly young. Kyon guessed that it was the result of modern medical technology and Darwinism. "You can go now," she announced without looking up from her desk.

Kyon stood up, and walked towards the door, but turned around before walking out, "Thanks doc," he walked out of the medical bay, and into the mess hall of the ship. He thought of all of the things that had happened to him, and shook his head. He saw Kaiden in front of him, and stared, "Hello, Elvis impersonator."

Kaiden gave the red-headed male a glare, "So..." he paused deliberately, "I take it you'll be joining us," he says.

He wondered why Kaiden didn't lighten up, and rubbed his eyes "Yeah," he said, looking away from the biotic. "Don't get jealous if I take the spotlight."

Kaiden sneered, "Why are you even here?" he asked, getting in his face, "What can you possibly contribute to this mission?"

Kyon shrugs, "I don't know," he replied, "probably nothing more than my body. More than some are willing to risk." He shrugged and wondered how Kaiden would react.

Kaiden, disgusted by Kyon's attitude, narrowed his eyes, "Is that all you can say?"

Kyon returned the glare, "It's all you need from me," he stood up, and turned from the navy man "I think I'll avoid this area of the ship," he commented before walking towards the elevator. He pressed the button with his better arm. He heard Kaiden mutter something under his breath just before the elevator doors close, and sighed

Kyon waited for the elevator to go into the cargo bay, "That guy's nerve," he complained to himself, "can't let something go, bet he'll try to get me thrown off somehow," he leans on the wall of the elevator.

Ashley hears the elevator open up from her station and sees Kyon, "Hey!" she yells as she waves him over, "you staying with us?"

"Yeah," Kyon answered, walking over to her.

"I look forward to working with you," she gave her hand out to shake his, "you missed Shepard's speech."

Kyon raised his eyebrows, and took her hand, "What was it about?" he let go of her hand,.

Ashley shook her head and shrugged, "Something about us going to track down Saren, how we are alone, and whatnot," she paraphrased, "not as inspiring to your average grunt."

"I see," Kyon nodded, "So, how did you end up here?" he sat on a nearby crate and rolled his shoulder.

She looked to the ground and sighed, "I was stationed on Eden Prime," she answered solemnly, "I was on patrol, when the Geth attacked." She looked at him, "Lost my whole squad, then Shepard comes out of nowhere and saves my ass," she admitted, "I don't think Shepard wants me here," she followed Kyon's lead, and sat down on nearby crate.

"Join the fucking club," Kyon commented in a dry tone, "neither does elvis up there," he thought aloud, "I think between me telling him he has a bad hair-do, throwing him into a wall, then calling him Shepard's boyfriend," he laughed a little, "pretty much cemented our relationship."

Ashley laughed with him, "I would think so," she shook her head, and sighed.

Kyon stood from the crate, "I'm going to talk to some of the others," he said, turning around to walk away.

"Sure thing," Ashley responded, then returned to her duties.

Kyon saw an avian alien working on what looked like it was a tank, and walked up to him, "Hey there," he says as he leaning on the MAKO.

"Kyon, right?" the alien asked without looking away from what he was doing up.

"Yeah," Kyon says, "that's me."

Garrus nodded, and stepped back from the tank, "Garrus Vakarian," he introduced himself, "I should thank you for keeping the Quarian, and the data safe," he tells him.

"The Quarian has a name," Kyon says, "and I was doing what any good living being should do."

Garrus sighed, "I guess you're right," he says.

Kyon nodded, wondering where Tali was, "Well, I'll talk to you later," he stopped leaning on the tank, and saw a door next to the elevator.

"That's engineering," Garrus answered his unasked question, "the quari- urm, Tali went in there not long after we got here."

"Thanks," Kyon says as he walks towards engineering.

Kyon walked into engineering and saw Tali standing at a console. She was standing alone, separated from the humans, and he thought that she looked lonely like this. He walked up behind her, quietly so she didn't notice him. He taps her on the shoulder, making her jump her jump, "Keelah!" She shouted, earning laughs from all around the room. "That's not funny!"

Kyon stops laughing after a minute, "That's because it happened to you," he snickers, "anyway how are you doing?" he asks her.

"I'm fine," Tali told him, calming down, "are you staying with us?" she asked, a hopeful tone in her voice.

"Yeah," he answered, shrugging his shoulders slightly, "for the time being."

"It seems like Shepard and some of the others already knew you," Tali tells him.

"I was aboard the Normandy right before I met you," Kyon admitted to the Quarian, "threw Kaiden into a wall, and pissed off Shepard," he chuckled, and shrugged his shoulders. He wondered how long he could go without an incident happening. "Kaiden doesn't like me, and I'm sure Shepard will want to get me off as soon as possible."

Tali's eye's widen under her helmet, "Oh," she says realizing what she asked the Commander when she requested that Kyon come with her.

"Don't worry about it," Kyon responded, suddenly feeling tired, "I think I need some rest," he says.

"Oh sure," Tali says, "I'll talk to you later, okay?" she she asks.

"Yeah," Kyon says, "See you," he walks out of Engineering, and to the elevator, "Where the fuck do I sleep?" he asks himself.

The quarter master laughs a little, "There are some sleeper pods up top," he says, "just get in and you should be fine."

Kyon nods, "Thanks," he steps into the elevator and presses the button for the top deck.

When the elevator arrived at the top floor, he ran into Shepard, "You..." she narrowed her eyes, and glared at him.

"Yes me," Kyon smiles, "need something?"

"If you hurt any of my crew again," Shepard says as she puts her finger in his face, "I will personally throw your ass out an airlock."

"Understood," Kyon says as he crosses his arms, "now if you'll excuse me, I need some sleep."

Shepard steps out of the way and let's him pass, "Good," she says, "We'll reach therum in two days, I want to see you in action."

Kyon says, "Sure thing," he walked past her. Without turning around, he added, "I'll need some armor though."

"We'll get you some," Shepard replied, walking in the opposite direction.

Kyon continued until he reached the sleeper pods, which was behind the mess. He spotted Kaiden next to a terminal and sighed. "I thought I was going to avoid this place," he commented under his breath. He opened the pod, and stepped in, "This is going to be a long two days isn't it?" He looked around the pod, trying to find a place for him , "Now how do I activate this," he says as he presses a blue button, "Oh, that's how..." he trailed, falling asleep fairly soon.


	10. Chapter 10

Kyon's eyes shot open as he woke from his sleep. He felt information entering his brain, and opened the pod he slept in the night before. The red-head looked clasped his head, feeling an intense pain that dissipated as fast as it appeared. The information was for some sort of device, but he didn't know what it did at all. He opened his omni-tool, and opened a sketching application. He thought it was useful, having everything in the palm of his hand. It took him a few hours to finish the schematics for the device, and figure out which parts he would need. To his surprise, the most important part of it was just a modified version of a Mass Accelerator, which he was pretty sure was inside of the collapsible guns he fooled around with the day earlier.

A few hours later Kyon finished with the schematics, "What does it do?" he asks himself as he looks at it.

"You don't know?" an unfamiliar voice says from the other side of the table.

Kyon looked up and saw a blond-haired woman watching him, "No," he responds, "I just drew this off the top of my head," he looks at the schematics on his Omni-tool, "who are you?" he asks as he turns his head to look at her. She introduced her self as Katherine Thompson, a cadet training under the doctor, "Kyon Salgrins," he replied to her introduction, "I'm surprised I haven't seen you, considering all the time I see to spend inside the medical room.

"Well, I didn't actually get assigned to the _Normandy _until yesterday," Katherine replied as she sat down in front of Kyon. "As for your name, everyone knows who you are by now. You piss off Shepard and her second-in-command of the ground team, save the quarian, letting us get the evidence to the council, and you wear old clothing." On the last detail, she gestured to Kyon's vest and white dress shirt, now splattered with blood from when he got shot.

Just thinking about what happened yesterday made Kyon's shoulder hurt, and he rolled it slightly. "Oh, this?" he asked in response after getting rid of the mental pain. "Most people would call the style Steam-punk," he told her, he thought that he would need to get a new change of clothes somewhere, wearing the tattered dress clothing wasn't too flattering on him. Ever since he was young, he prided himself on looking presentable and right now, he was anything but. "It's from the 21st century. I don't like the outfits people wear these days."

"You make it seem like you're older than any of us," she commented, smiling a little at Kyon's peculiar speech pattern.

Kyon chuckled at her comments, because she was correct in that matter.

Kyon realized when he looked down at the schematics. He hadn't been here for more than a day, and he had already created something based on technology he barely knew. Kyon shook his head, then looking at the woman, "So, is there anything else you wanted?"

"How old are you?" Katherine asks, "Just out of curiosity."

"Odd question," Kyon shrugged, then rolled his neck. There was a loud pop that was audible to everyone in the immediate vicinity, "Damn it, I hate when that happens," he rubbed his neck, then looked back at Katherine.

Crossing his arms, he tilted his head in thought, "Let's see... I'm 195 years old," he answered after a few seconds, his tone indicating that he was being completely serious.

Katherine started laughing. She held her stomach and calmed down after a few seconds, "Really now?" she asked between breaths, "You've been around for a long time then."

"You have no idea..." He told her, shaking his head at his own joke, even if it wasn't really a joke, "In all seriousness, I'm twenty-five 25," Katherine hit the table in frustration, "What?" He arched his brow curiously.

"Sorry," she shrugged as she shook her head, "Me and a few other cadets were placing bets on your age." Katherine closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, "I said you were 26,"

Kyon arched a brow, "Oh really?" he crossed his arms again, and smiled, "Well, go tell 'em.

The woman nodded. Standing up, she walked away from Kyon, leaving him to his thoughts. He wondered if that was what passed for military regulation in this time period, the shrugged noting how some of his friends in the Airforce acted when they came back to visit him. After a few minutes, he looked back at the schematics, and questioned what they did.

_First you must build it, then you will learn_

Kyon sighed. He shook his head at the voices in his head, "Really, build it first?" He stood up, still looking at the schematics, "Well, I don't have anything better to do." he walks to the elevator. Once he was in, he took it to the cargo floor.

When Kyon exited the elevator, he saw Ashley working at her station, making sure that all the guns were functional. It was too bad he was planning on taking them all apart. As he approached, Ashley turned her head to him, "Did you go to sleep?"

"Yeah, now I'm feeling well rested," he looked at the workbench, "Could I possibly use this for the next few hours?" Raising a brow, and hoping that it wasn't out of the question

"What for?" She asked him arching a brow.

"So, I can create a nuclear bomb," Kyon deadpanned, though he was fairly sure he could do that with the materials currently presented to him.

Ashley laughed at him, obviously thinking that he was joking about the bomb, "Sure thing, Kyon, want me to grab the Uranium?" she asked playfully before socking him in the shoulder.

Kyon rubbed his arm, knowing there would be a bruise later, "So, can I use it?" he repeated.

"Sure," Ashley says as she yawns, "I was going to hit the sac anyway," she tells him, "make sure you clean up when you finish," she told him sternly, "I don't like my workstation being a mess," She walked towards the elevator.

"Thanks!" Kyon called out after her. Looking at the various guns on the workbench he began taking some of them apart, "This should do. . .." He announced to himself.

Ashley came back down the elevator 5 hours later and saw that Kyon had fallen asleep at the workbench with schematics open for a device, and weapon parts littered around the area, "I said clean it up," she says mildly annoyed, as she walks up to him.

Kyon was sleeping soundly as she walked up to him. Before she gets a chance to berate him for not cleaning up, she notices how peaceful he looked. It was like he doesn't know how messed up their lives were about to become. ,It was common for people new to war, but for Ashley, she had dealt with her own personal war for her entire life. Every time she tried to get ahead, he name would always get in the way. She sighed, shaking her head, "I should get something to keep him warm," she turned around, and opened one of the crates labeled 'Survival Kit,' and pulled out a blanket to put on Kyon, "Stay warm kid," she whispered, walking away.

When Ashley got back to the elevator, it had already gone back up, "Damn it!" she cursed, waiting for it to come back down. She hated how slow the elevator was, because not only did she have to wait for it to go up then back down, but she had to get in it and wait for it to go back up again. She groaned in agitation, cursing whoever called it back up. "Couldn't wait five seconds, could you?" She crossed her arms, let out a deep breath, and glared at the elevator doors.

She dropped her glare when she saw who was in the elevator. Shepard appeared as the elevator doors opened, and Ashley hoped that she didn't see her glaring at her. "Williams," she greeted, a hostile undertone in her tongue. She looked past Ashley, and saw Kyon sleeping on the weapon's bench , "Why is he sleeping on our guns?" she asked with a hint of annoyance.

"He was working on something," Ashley answered, keeping her tone matter of fact. "It looks like he fell asleep in the middle of building it using parts from some of the guns on the bench." It wasn't until after she gave the report did she realize she was practically signing Kyon's death warrant.

"Our guns?" Shepard asked, her features darkening with obvious rage. Her fists balled up as she shot a glare past Ashley, towards the sleeping Kyon.

"Yes," Ashley answered, her voice slightly lower as she cursed herself internally. Shepard pushed past her and started glowing with an aura of biotics, "What are you doing?" Ashley asked, following her at a distance.

"Making him put our guns back together," Shepard says as she reaches Kyon, "Wake up!" she yells.

Kyon looked up at Shepard, but his eyes were mostly shut, "I still have 3 hours until school, leave me alone mom," he put his head back on the weapon's bench, and took a deep breath

Shepard enraged by Kyon, picked him up and pinned him to the wall, "I said 'Wake up'!" she shouted, drawing the attention of anyone in the cargo bay.

Kyon, fully awake, glared at Shepard, the device on his wrist starting to shine, "Let me go," he demanded.

"Then put my guns back together, or so help me..." Shepard told him, her biotics flaring a little brighter

"Sorry not possible," he replied.

"I don't care if it's not possible," Shepard announced, pushing him harder. Kyon let out a gasp of pain and closed hiseyes, "I want you to put my guns back together."

Kyon's Omni-tool glowed for a second after he flexed his fingers a certain way, and the rectangular device on his left arm arm started glowing a little brighter, and Shepard's biotics started to flutter. Shepard lost control of her biotics as the dark energy seemed to flow straight into the device "How do you like that?" Shepard asked, dropping him and taking a step back. There was a genuine look of fear in her face. It was obvious that without her biotics, she wasn't the indestructible Commander Shepard that everyone had come to know.

The crystal light in the middle of the device changed from green to red, and it shot Shepard's biotics back at her, "This is what I used the gun components for," Kyon told her as he stretched his neck. The device stopped, and its lights turned blue.

The biotic staggered back, "What... the... hell?" she asked, looking at Kyon, her fear soon turning to anger. She was just humiliated by him, and she wasn't going to stand for it.

"I call it the Biotic regulators, or bio-reg," Kyon answered, the bio-reg turning green again, "It allows me to regulate the flow of biotics, and redirect it away from me or others."

"You could control other people's biotics?" Ashley asks.

"If they don't expect it, aren't concentrating on it, or aren't too powerful, then yes," Kyon answered, shrugging "one problem is the power source," he added, shrugging her shoulder.

"And that would be?" she asked, wanting to know everything about the device, while glaring at Kyon.

"The amount of power it takes to activate the regulator, only allows me to use it for a few seconds," Kyon explained, he sat down on a crate, and looked up at her, "And the cool down it about 20 seconds."

Shepard thought about what he had said, it would be a good asset if they came against an asari to be able to take away their most valuable weapon. She decided that it would be best to keep him around until they dealt with Benezia whenever she got to that, "I hope you can put it to good use," she turned around, "also your armor is with the quarter master," she told young man, walking towards the elevator.

With Shepard gone Ashley turned to Kyon, "How did you build this out of gun parts?" she asked, disbelief lacing her features as she cocked her head to one side, and crossed her arms. She shifted her weight to one side, indicating that she wasn't going to leave until he answered

"Oh, the usual," Kyon answered as he start to clean up the weapon's bench, putting the weapons together with any parts that he didn't use, "spit, shoelaces, and bubblegum. Am I glad for interchangeable parts."

Ashley laughed at Kyon's little joke, thinking that shoelaces were an early twenty-first century thing, then shrugging it off, "Why is that?" she asked him.

"Not really," he says, as his stomach groaned with hunger, "I'm going to grab some food," he announced, walking towards the elevator, and waits for it to return from the crew deck.

Ashley stands next to him, "You should really repair those clothes," she told him, "the two bullet holes in the shoulder aren't too agreeable with that outfit,"

Kyon looked at the shoulder, "Yeah," he shrugged, trying to forget the small amount of pain that came with the reminder of being shot, "I'll do that after we get back from Therum," he shook his head as the elevator arrived, and they both stepped into it.

"Oh yeah," Ashley said, reaching to her boot, "I remember you got picked for that mission," she unstrapped the combat knife that was on her calf, "here is a present from me to you," she put the knife in Kyon's hands

"Thanks," Kyon said strapping the knife to his belt. He was very much surprised by how light it was, especially for its size. It would be easier to throw than a combat knife from his time.

"Your welcome," she replied, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes making the man feel a foot shorter, "better not lose it, I'm not giving you another one."

"All right," Kyon said gulping a little, "I'll treasure it," he reassured her, not wanting to feel her wrath.

Ashley looked away, trying to hide her blush, "You'd better," she replied. She took a deep breath, and the elevator ride was spent in silence until it arrived at the crew deck, and the two stepped out of it.

* * *

><p><strong>Woot, this chapter was twice as long as its original. I'm sorry it took so long, I added so much stuff to this chapter to make sure it flowed batter. Not to mention I changed the entire tense of the story into past tense. Anyway, leave a review if you have an comment. Also, I'm open to tech ideas since I want Kyon going crazy with ME tech. I already have the ME1 tech improvements mapped out, but the two years between ME1 and 2 is large, so I want to see what you guys think.<strong>


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N Guess what, I'm back.**

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><p>"How were we supposed to go on a mission without our weapons?" Ashley asked Kyon as they stepped out of the elevator. Her tone didn't imply that she was mad at him, only that she was curious about what had gone through his mind when he was taking the weapons apart.<p>

"I only took some components out," Kyon replied as he walked towards the mess hall, "I can cannibalize the ones I took apart to make some more," he shrugged, walking over to the food dispenser, knowing where it was because of the label above it.

"How will you do that?" She raised her eyebrow at him as they both took a nutrient paste from dispenser. They walked over to the table and sat down.

"I'll take parts from the guns that we don't usually use, and put them into the better guns," Kyon opened the nutrient paste, but didn't taste it yet, "they'll be better than the sucky guns, but not as good as the better guns."

"Well at least we'll have guns," Ashley sighed, taking a drop of it and putting it on her tongue. She hated the nutrient paste, but didn't complain since she had been living on it for a few years now. "Just hope Shepard doesn't try to kill you for that."

"The only reason I'm not dead," Kyon paused, smiling a bit, "is probably because she didn't have a gun at the time."

Ashley shook her head, "Next time you decide to take our guns apart, tell us so we can give you the crappy ones."

He smiled at her shyly, "Sorry, I was using what I had at my disposal." He ran a hand through his scarlet hair, "Besides, I think Tali still has that Krogan shotgun we took from the asari."

"Wait... what?" Ashley asked, astounded by the statement.

"Tali didn't tell you about how the two of us met?" He smirked, then crossed his arms again. It was common for him to cross his arms whenever he was amused, but he had noticed that he was doing it more so than usual.

"Unfortunately, I wasn't around for the story," she answered, shrugging her shoulders, "So, spill the beans," she shifted in her seat slightly, and her posture told Kyon that he wasn't about to leave anytime soon.

Kyon took a deep breath, and leaned forward. He rested his elbows on the table and smiled at her, "Well, I was wandering around the Citadel when I leaned over a balcony, I looked down and see Tali running away from an Asari and two Salarians," he paused briefly to take a breath, "I, being the good Samaritan that I was, started running across the rooftops."

Ashley raised her brow, "You," she scoffed at him a little, "ran across rooftops to help a random person, a quarian of all people?" she laughed a little at the circumstance, "I was expecting that you randomly ran into her or something."

"Not over," Kyon deadpanned, his annoyance at her interruption evident in his bland tone, "anyway, Tali gets trapped at a dead-end, and I was running down the fire escape," his tone returned to what it had been before Ashley's interruption, "when I got low enough to the ground, I jumped off."

Ashley laughed as he made an over dramatic gesture of jumping to the ground, "You are bullshitting me, aren't you?" she asks.

"Let me finish..." Kyon practically growled, "Anyway, after I jumped off I let these babies pop out," he flicked his wrists and the duel hidden blades on his wrists popped out with a satisfying '_shink_,' "and stab both of the Salarians through the back of the neck," Ashley was now enraptured by the story, so he continued, "the asari turned around to shoot at me, but I was too low for her to see, and swept her legs from under her and pinned her to the ground." He said taking a deep breath, "A very bad idea."

Ashley narrowed her eyes a little, then raised her brow, "Why is that?"

"Well, it seems that she was a powerful biotic," Kyon answered, dipping his head as he remembered being thrown into the wall, "So, that kind of didn't work in my favor," he added, "She threw me into a wall, and was about to kill me."

Ashley's face curled into an expression of pain, "Ouch," she sympathized, "what happened next?"

Kyon smiled folding his arms behind his head and leaning back a little, "When I pinned the asari, her shotgun slid in Tali's direction. While the asari was in the middle of a monologue she shot her in the back."

Ashley laughed whole-heartedly for a few seconds, then wiped her eye to make sure there weren't any tears, "That's really cliché... she was monologuing, every villain's mistake in the vids."

He laughed with her and nodded, "I know. So do you know what happened while I was out?" he asks.

Ashley told Kyon about Shepard becoming a SpecTRe, and then mentioned something about another human coming aboard, "And I'm glad we have another human on board. The more humans there are the better with all these aliens running around."

Kyon decided that it would be best to avoid the alien subject at the moment, and went for the new guy, "So, who is this new recruit?" He leaned forward, indicating his interest on the subject. It was at this moment that he thought that this little activity felt like gossiping in an office environment, the one reason he would never get a white-collar job.

"Said he was alliance spec-ops and command wanted him onboard," Ashley explains.

"How come I haven't seen him?" Kyon asks.

"I haven't seen him since he came aboard, I guess he is hiding somewhere."

"Any idea what his name is?" Kyon asks.

"No," Ashley says, "Shepard refused to take him on at first, but then she got a message and changed her mind almost immediately."

"From what I've seen that doesn't sound like Shepard," Kyon says, "you know I've never heard her first name," he comments.

Ashley laughs, "Yeah neither have I," she tells him, "I only know it because of the post change notice I got when we came back from the citadel."

"So I'm going to go look for this mystery guy now," Kyon announced when his stomach growled, "...That's why I came up here!" He shouted as he realizing he forgot to even touch his food. He grabbed the paste, and put some on his finger.

"Best damn thing on this ship," Ashley says as Kyon puts some of the paste in his mouth.

Kyon spat out the paste, hoping to get rid of the taste, "That... is... disgusting!" He growled to himself.

Ashley laughed at Kyon's displeasure, "Too bad it's the only thing on this ship," she told him, as he looked at the paste.

Kyon shrugged in a defeated manner, "I guess it'll have to do," he said more to himself than to Ashley, putting more paste in his mouth.

Ashley shook her head at him, "You aren't very picky are you?"

"You try going an entire week without a decent meal," he responds, "you'd be able to eat anything too."

* * *

><p>Michael, going by his longstanding alias Ares, sat in the briefing room of the Normandy, waiting for Shepard to return. He thought about the complications that being under her command would bring, but then dismissed them, knowing that her mentality would put the mission above all else.<p>

When Shepard walked in, she stepped in front of Michael and asked, "What do you know about my father?"

Michael knew what her tone indicated, and knew that he wouldn't be able to give her a straight answer. That would defeat the purpose of him having a

"I know a lot," he answered slyly from under the visor he had been given 17 years prior, "I used to work with him," it was a half-truth, since he never really worked with Samuel Shepard, but he did come in contact with him when he had first arrived and owed his life to the man.

"What?" Her face turning into a look of pure hatred, "You worked with that bastard?"

The way that the words rolled off her tongue, Michael could tell that she had no good opinions about Samuel. Michael, tempted to sigh, knew that he wouldn't be able to tell Athena anything about her father. It pained him to see the emotional turmoil that she was in, because he was partly responsible for it. He had broken her heart when they were younger, and had made her believe that her father killed him in surgery.

"Yes, when I was seventeen."

"Seventeen? How old are you?" She asked.

"I'm thirty-four," Michael answered her, "we've met before,"

"Where did we meet? I'm sure I would have remembered you."

"About 17 years ago," he says, "I was at your mother's funeral as an escort for your father."

Shepard looked at him a hint of recognition crossing her face, "You... can't be. Who-are-you?"

"Ares." Michael answered, "But you know me by another name..."

Michael took his visor off revealing the ocular implants he had designed when he was sixteen, and Samuel had made the following week. The implants themselves were the only thing that would give his identity away to Athena, after he had gone through the facial reconstruction surgery. His were unique among most implants since they had a rotating triangle, tip being a different color. Depending on which color was pointed up was which function they served, Radar, Thermal, or Ultra-violet. The only hindrance was that he was partially color blind in the white light spectrum.

"You?" She asked, flabbergasted by the revelation, "How are you alive? I saw your vitals flat-line while my father was doing the surgery..."

"It was a simple trick to convince everyone in the room that I was dead," he slicked his hair back, and looked up. He took adjusted his gloves making sure that nothing showed from under them, "but for now my name is Ares, not Michael. Afterall, Michael Arias died in surgery after a sky-car accident."

"Was my father in on this? Why didn't he tell me?" Her awed expression turned back to one of anger, and Michael knew he would have to give her at least some part of the truth.

"We kept it from you for your safety," Michael explained, holding his hands up to calm her down a little, "I am here to help you with your mission, when we finish you may contact your father."

"Then I welcome you aboard the Normandy Ares."

Shepard extended her hand towards Michael, and looked at his eyes, wondering how in the world he had ended up here. He had always been stoic, but that had been one of his stronger points. He always hid his emotions, but if you watched the imperceptible gestures he made, you would see how much he actually thinks about his actions before he does them, when something doesn't go the way he expected it, or when something went as he had expected it to go. Michael was one of the smartest people she knew, and if he was really in hiding before now, then there was a good reason for it.

He took her hand and nodded at her, his eyes meeting hers. His were cold, only filled with the electronic lights that made him unique in this world, and this gave him the advantage of seeing other people's emotions while they couldn't see his. He could see a small hint of joy at seeing him again, but it was masked by the anger she held for him 'dying' so abruptly, and then entering her life again just as abruptly.

Shepard brushed her hair back a little, "That was a long time ago... Michael. I have my reasons..."

"It is because you don't want to look like your father, after all, he was responsible for my 'death,' wasn't he?" Michael put his hand on her shoulder reassuringly, and smiled, something he rarely did. "Don't hate him for doing something that I asked him to do. It was to protect both of you."

"From what?" She pulled away from him, and walked towards the door. "I'm sorry Ares, but the past is in the past, don't try to bring it up."

"I'll try not to."

Michael watched as she walked out of the briefing room, and stood in front of the Galaxy map. He took a deep breath and sat down. His Omni-tool turned on, showering him in a blue light as he started typing.

* * *

><p>Grant walked onto the bridge and to the cockpit where Joker was at the helm. "Get enough beauty sleep there?" Joker asked as he sat down in the co-pilot's seat<p>

"Keep talking Joker," Grant told the glass-boned pilot, "and I'll break your crippled ass in two."

Joker cringed mockingly, showing his doubt of Grant's threats, "Oh noooo!" He shouted sarcastically, drawing the attention of a few of the crew members behind them, "he might actually do it after 7 years."

"Your right, I wouldn't do it," Grant responded rolling his eyes at Joker, "At least, not very fast."

"Joking aside, have you seen the new humans onboard?"

"New humans?" Grant asked, wondering if it could be some of his friends from childhood, then quickly deciding that the chances were slim, "No, I haven't."

"Well we got this creepy guy in a trench coat, and you missed the red-head, remember the guy that we picked up from Eden Prime?"

"Wait, I thought Shepard kicked him off as soon as we got to the Citadel," Grant answered, his eyebrow raising as he combed a hand through his golden hair.

"He came back apparently."

The two of the pilots shared information about where they were going, and then quickly started making adjustments to their vectors so that they wouldn't go through a black hole while on the way to Therum.


	12. Chapter 12

**Don't forget to leave a review, and tell me what you think of this. Any questions are welcomed.**

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><p>Kyon stretched as he laid the empty nutrient paste packet on the table, he wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere, but there was that mysterious new passenger of the <em>Normandy. <em>Deciding that learning about the new crew member, he stood up and threw his trash in what he guessed was a futuristic trash compactor. He turned around and looked at Ashley, a smile coming across his face.

"I'm going to go find that guy with a trench coat." Kyon rolled his shoulder and started walking, "See you later," he added as he passed Ashley, waving slightly as he walked towards the elevator. He decided the best place to look would be the bridge since he had been in the cargo-bay before eating the nutrient paste.

Ashley waved back, and thought about Kyon's personality. It was as if he didn't know was at stake, which considering how fast he came out of getting shot might be very possible. She shook her head, and smiled, "It's cute in a way..."

"What's cute?" Tali asked as she walked into Ashley's vision, the marine to glared slightly at her then looked away before Tali could notice it.

Ashley blushed a little, realizing that she was talking to herself for a moment. She shrugged her shoulders and leaned back in her seat, "How carefree Kyon acts."

"I see," Tali said as she sat down and noticed the red flush on Ashley's cheeks, "Are you alright?

"I'm fine," Ashley replied, her voice filled with a cold resent for Tali, "Why are you up here anyway?" She asked, crossing her arms, "Shouldn't you be down there in the engine room?"

Tali shoots Ashley a glare from under her helmet, nearly invisible if it wasn't for her glowing eyes, "I needed to eat to, they won't let me back in until I've at least had a tube of nutrient paste," she answered as she pulled a paste tube from a pouch on her suit.

Ashley nearly laughed at the fact that Tali got kicked out of the engine room, "I'm surprised your suit doesn't come with an automatic feeder."

Tali thought about the comment for a few seconds before realizing the stereotyping of her suit, "Contrary to popular belief, our suits don't have automatic feeders... though it would help us when we get assigned extended shifts."

Ashley stood up and threw her depleted tube in the trash, "I am going to do things elsewhere." She started walking away, feeling the Quarian's glare as she walked out of sight, though she didn't especially care that the alien didn't like her, she didn't like aliens.

Tali watched her leave, "Good...you bosh'tet," she said, not caring if Ashley heard, then realized that they would be around each other for a while and regretted her attitude towards her. She shook her head and thought about how to apologize and try to get on professional terms with the marine.

* * *

><p>Kyon was standing on the bridge of the Normandy, and watched a man walk out of the and sees the man with the trench coat exit the briefing room, "Hey!" he shouts as the man turns towards him,<p>

"Who are you?" Michael asked, his eyes literally scanning the man. There was a rectangular device on the inside of his jacket, and from the breaks in his arms and legs he was an active person but that stopped around the same time that the amount of burn marks started appearing on his hands and arms, most likely from sparks, which meant that he welded metal frequently. All he needed was Kyon's name to begin a search for information

"Kyon Salgrins," he answered, holding his hand out to shake, "may I ask your name?"

"I will be known as Ares on this vessel," he answered taking the hand out of politeness. A notification popped up on his visor, telling him that there was no information on Kyon except for his name. The information that Michael's eyes had gathered on Kyon was sent to Aria's servers to allow processing. It was obvious that the man knew his way around machinery from the burns under his sleeves.

"No last name?" Kyon asked, tilting his head as he asked the question.

Michael was surprised that he asked for a last name, which either meant he was an FNG or that he wasn't Alliance personnel, "Could you tell me your rank?"

"I'm a volunteer to hunt down Saren," Kyon says.

Michael's eyebrows widened as he crossed his arms, "Well, nice to have an extra hand. If you'll excuse me, I have other things to attend to."

Kyon watched as he walked away, and shrugged his shoulders, "Nice to see someone appreciates me being here," he smiled and turned to see Shepard standing behind him.

Athena crossed her arms and tilted her head, "Would you like to elaborate on your context?" The tone in her voice revealed that she wasn't used to dealing with others outside of military rank, meaning she was not a very good people person.

"You know, nice to know that volunteering is still appreciated in this day and age. How did he get signed on?"

"That is on a need to know basis only, and you don't need to know." Shepard uncrossed her arms and rolled her neck, "Go fix my gun problem," she ordered, "you have one day, or I'll through you out the airlock myself, I want those guns in perfect working make sure they are clean," She turns on her heel, and begins walking away.

"How do you clean a gun?" he asked silently, he turned around and started walking back down the stairs. He called for the elevator and wondered how long it would take for him to finish putting the guns together and clean them with whatever futuristic gun cleaning kit they used these days.

* * *

><p>Shepard stood behind the two pilots and watched as the stars passed as streaks of light, "How are things running?"<p>

There was a second of silence before Grant turned around, "We are supposed to run to Therum?" Grant asks as he looked up, "I don't think Joker would get very far, I glued his ass to the seat."

"Sure you did," Joker responded without looking away from the controls.

"Oh yeah? Try standing up."

Joker's eyes widened and he nearly jumped out of his seat, "You tricked me!?" he sat back down and brooded, nearly forgetting that Athena was standing behind them.

She looked at the two pilots, "This isn't the time for jokes, or are you both idiots?"

"I'm hurt," Joker answered, looking back, "why would you think my wit is idiotic, thinking Grant's is I can understand," he smirks.

Grant shook his head and went back to work, "How is that understandable?"

"Well, you know," Joker says, "because you are super blond," .

"A blond joke?" Grant asks, "I'll get you back for that later, maybe break a few bones."

Shepard looks at Grant, "That might be fun to watch," she thought aloud, forgetting the reason that she was in the cockpit in the first place, "I almost forgot, status report."

Grant looks at the console, "Um, we are running silent, and on schedule. We will need to stop in a few hours to vent the heat before we start the final run to Therum," he reported to Shepard.

"Good," she says.

"So I heard we got some new crew-members," Grant said, remembering the sound of a familiar voice he thought he wouldn't hear in his lifetime. Michael had been a good friend, encouraged him to go to the air-force back when they were in the twenty-first century. He had only seen a glimpse of the man, but hoped that it was him, after all it had been seventeen years.

"Yeah, we picked up a spec-ops who assigned himself to the Normandy, and a civilian who has a knack for building things, though you probably heard of him," she shrugged her shoulders trying to hide her annoyance, "I heard you and Joker laughing about him and Kaiden."

Grant laughs a little, "So funny, just the large lump on the back of his head..." he trails off in silent laughter.

"It wasn't that funny," Joker responded, "now his face when we bring it up is funny, then when he told us what Kyon told us about his hair," Joker let out single laugh and shook his head, "that was funny."

Shepard shakes her head, "Well, if there isn't anything else, I'll leave you idiots to yourselves," she turned around and walked back to the galaxy map.


	13. Chapter 13

**Arias: Hey guys, Hunter here with another chapter of Engineer effect!**

**Kyon: and another chapter of me being completely hated by Shepard, and Kaiden. By the way, who the hell is Michael, I thought this was supposed to be my story?**

**Michael: I'm in the commentary you know?**

**Grant: Same here.**

**Kyon: *Looks at the two* Why are they here?**

**Arias: Because I wrote them into the intro, and you can't do anything about it...  
><strong>

**Kyon: Oh yeah? *Pulls out laptop and logs into , then erases Intro***

**Arias: To late, the chapter was already posted.**

**Kyon: Damn it!**

**Arias: *Chuckles* Michael, would you like to say our disclaimer**

**Michael: Agent-Wyoming Hunter owns nothing from Bioware, or the ME series, hell he doesn't even own this computer.**

**Arias: That's harsh.**

**Grant: I think it was supposed to be.**

* * *

><p>Michael was standing in front of an equipment locker, and started organizing his equipment. There was his custom sniper-rifle, twin pistols, and a secondary Omni-tool that was given to him by Samuel, made specifically for combat purposes. It would only last about ten months before it would become useless, but it would be more powerful than the ones that his enemies would be using. He took one final item out of his equipment bag, and laid it in his locker. He took off his visor and replaced it with a pair of sunglasses, hiding his synthetic eyes from the others. He put the visor in the locker and closed it, a light tap on the floor next to him.<p>

The spec-op agent turned and saw Urdnot Wrex standing next to him. Surprised that the krogan would walk over to him, he nodded. Wrex took it as a sign to talk and took a breath "You carry a sword human, interesting," he crossed his arms and tilted his head slightly.

"And you are a silent krogan," Michael smiled slightly and leaned on the locker. "I'm Ares."

"Urdnot Wrex," he grunted back, his blood-red eyes piercing Michael's, an intimidation tactic if Michael had to guess, and that meant that he was testing him to see how good he would react under tension, "pretty confident for a human, usually you meat-bags piss yourself." Wrex smiled as he uncrossed his arms, and leaned on his locker, the metal groaning under his weight.

"I've been through more than most humans, though your infinite wisdom far surpasses mine," Michael tells the much older krogan, it was a tactic in order to get Wrex as an alley, hopefully prevent him from going ape-shit when the team got to Virmire. After a few seconds of thinking, Michael noticed that Wrex let out a deep chuckle."

"You seem wise yourself," Wrex retorts, standing up and uncrossing his arms, "working with you might be... interesting," Wrex walked back to his spot by the crates, leaving Michael to plan their next conversation.

Michael was an interesting person, planning every move before going into a battle. It was one of the reasons that the corporation that was held under his name, Arias Medical Munitions Organization or AMMO by the public, was one of the most successful businesses in the galaxy. His knowledge of the future also lent a hand in his rise in the financial sectors. After a few moments of thinking, Michael closed his locker and turned towards the elevator.

When Michael reached the elevator, Kyon came walking out of it. Before they passed each other, Kyon waved, "How you doing?" he asked in a macho voice, one he never pulled off well.

Michael stopped to look at Kyon, "What year were you born?"

"nineteen..."

Michael stopped Kyon from talking after that by pushing him into a wall, "Shut up and listen to me," he told Kyon in a commanding voice, making it look like he was berating Kyon, "You'll do everything Commander Shepard tells you, and you won't argue or I'll throw you out the airlock, and you'll address her and me as sir. Understand?" Michael gently shook his head so that only Kyon could see.

Kyon looked around, everyone was looking at them and he knew he couldn't take this guy in a fight, "Yes sir..." he told him with a glare, hoping that this would be the only embarrassing moment today.

"Good, now when you have a free moment, I want to talk to you privately. It's about your unique situation aboard this vessel," Michael let Kyon go and walked into the elevator, closing the door before Kyon could respond.

Kyon watched as the elevator doors closed, and was speechless. Not a few minutes ago Michael had been a relatively nice guy. He shook his head and started walking towards the weapon's bench where Ashley was working on fixing his problem. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Wrex watching and glaring at him from the left.

"That's my job you know," Kyon told Ashley as he sat down next to her, watching as she rapidly put the guns together, then put them in their corresponding crates.

Ashley finished putting the gun she was working on together, and puts it down, "Sorry," she responds a bit roughly, "but I do this to blow off steam. The fact the guns were already taken apart was a plus," she took a deep breath then looked at Kyon, "need anything?"

"Yeah, how do you clean a gun?" Kyon asked Ashley, she was about to laugh until she remembered that he wasn't military trained.

Ashley shakes her head at the notion that she was basically training Kyon, then realized that if she wanted him to survive the hunt for Saren, she would need to teach him about being a soldier. She didn't think she would be training another rookie so soon after Eden Prime. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back. The wounds were still fresh in her mind, and she wouldn't be able to get over it very easily if Kyon was a constant reminder. Despite her reservations though, she decided that keeping him alive would atone for her failure at Eden Prime, and that would mean training him in weapon combat, "I'll show you," she answered after a deep internal argument with herself, "Now watch closely."

* * *

><p>Michael walked out of the elevator, and turned into the mess hall. There he saw Kaiden Alenko, one of his least favorite crew members aboard the Normandy, but that just meant that he would have to deal with it, his mission was to improve Shepard's chances against the Reapers, and keeping her entire crew alive was one of the objectives he would need to complete to achieve his goal.<p>

Michael walked over to Kaiden, "Lieutenant Alenko," he said as he stood in front of the counter, "I'm operative Ares."

"Operative Ares," Kaiden says in his strained voice, more so than usual from the headache he got from Kyon throwing him into a wall a day prior.

"I am evaluating the ground team," Michael told Kaiden as he took out a data-pad, "Do you think you are clear to go on the mission to Therum?" He asked, trying to make it seem that he was completely impartial to Kaiden at the moment.

"No, I don't think so," Kaiden answered truthfully, "my migranes are getting worse, and the contusion I got from hitting the wall yesterday have really been wreaking havoc on my head. I might have to sit Therum out,"

"I understand," Michael says, "if you are not feeling better by tomorrow, I will take you off the ground team for Therum," he explains, "it wouldn't help us if you got killed because you couldn't think strait,"

"Understood," Kaiden saluted Michael, his body going rigid with formality

"At ease." Kaiden went back to his former duty, "Saluting me won't be necessary," Michael told him before putting the data-pad on the counter next to them, "I have no formal rank, and answer to the commander. Unless I am given permission, I have no power over her subordinates."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Kaiden chuckled nervously, obviously embarrassed about saluting Michael. He reached his hand out, "Call me Kaiden if there are no formalities."

Michael takes it, "Alright, Kaiden." He let go of Kaiden's hand and picked his Data-pad back up, he turned on his heel and started walking away from the mess hall.

* * *

><p>After an hour of cleaning weapons Kyon puts his head on the table, "Thank you, spirit of the dragon," he says.<p>

Ashley looks at him, "That's an odd thing to say, care to elaborate?" she asks.

Kyon turned to look at Ashley, and smiled, "Well, my mother was Japanese, and she always went on about the great spirit of the dragon, he was the wisest of the twelve zodiacs according to her, and he always provided guidence. I didn't like the idea of someone controlling my life so to spite all the christians trying to force me to convert, I started following my mother's religion."

Ashley raised her brow, "What about those that respected your choices?"

"I respect them, they aren't the insane ones that deny ever doing anything wrong."

Ashley chuckled, "Yeah, I heard about those types, glad my father wasn't one of them."

Kyon stretched his arms as he thought about what Ashley was just said. She probably followed her father's religion, which meant that talking to her about religon wasn't always going to be a shiny subject. He decided that he would end this conversation and go talk to Tali, "I'll talk to you later."

"Sure thing. Later."

Kyon starts walking towards engineering. He saw her walk into the deck a few minutes ago. He saw her engrossed in the terminal, her fingers hitting the holographic keyboard a little faster than most people would type. It either meant two things, one, she was really fast all the time, or two, she was upset about something. He walked up behind her, and put a hand on her shoulder, "Tali, you okay?"

When Tali felt the hand on her shoulder, she nearly jumped. She turned around slowly. Once she saw it was Kyon, she took a deep breath, "It's nothing big," she says, "just some bosh'tet that doesn't know anything about quarians," she told him, failing to hide her frustration.

"And who would the person be?" Kyon asks, as he raises his eyebrow.

"Ashley," Tali answered truthfully, then remembered them conversing as Kyon was cleaning the weapons. She crossed her arms hoping that he would understand why she was mad instead of siding with Ashley automatically because they were the same species.

To Tali's surprise, Kyon started laughing lightly, only just enough for Tali to hear so that they didn't distract the other engineers in the room. After he stopped laughing he patted Tali on the shoulder, and smiled.

"What's so funny?" she tilted her head slightly, confused about why Kyon was laughing.

"Nothing really," Kyon says, "but if she doesn't know anything about quarians, then why don't you enlighten her?" he asks as he adjusts the goggles on his head.

Tali's body language was only dumbfounded, "Umm..." she says, "I didn't think of that," she says, "it's just she just made me so mad..." she curls up her fists, "I guess I should be used to it, I am a Quarian after all." Tali tilts her head towards the ground, a little ashamed about herself.

Kyon lifts her head back up so that he looks into her eyes, "What's so bad about being a Quarian?" Looking into Tali's eyes, Kyon thought they were wonderful. Because Tali had been the only Quarian he's met since coming to this time. She was unique to him, and he loved unique things.

"Most people think of us as scavengers, and thieves, because we don't have a planet," she answered, blushing deeply under her helmet. This was the only time she could remember being glad that her face was hidden behind her mask, and she didn't really know why?

Kyon let go of her and smiled, "What's so bad about that?"

Tali's blush disappeared for a look of scrutiny, and she crossed her arms, "Did you ever pay attention in xeno-history?" she asks.

"Not one bit," Kyon was telling the truth, even if he had taken the class he wouldn't have paid attention, the past wasn't important when dealing with people on a personal level. He lived by 'Live for yourself, not your ancestors.' He shook his head a little, "I was asleep through most of it."

"All right," Tali says as she puts a hand to her mask, then looks at Kyon and explains the Quarian history.

After a long Q&A session with Tali, Kyon shakes his head, "So, the council doesn't help you, then you get kicked off your home planet, have very little of a population, and then the council decides to forbid you from colonizing other planets," he says summarizing the bullshit that the quarian people have been through, "that's just plain cruel," he says.

"Thanks for being sympathetic towards the Quarian race," Tali says.

Kyon's stomach grumbles, "Damn," he says, "I swear I just ate a few hours ago," he says as he shakes his head.

Tali laughs, "Must be a biotic," she says, "heard they have to eat a lot," she then shakes her head, "you should go eat."

Kyon nods, "All right, talk to you later."

Kyon walked out of the engineering deck, and called for the elevator. It wasn't long before he was inside of the mess hall again, and grabbing a nutrient paste. He looked over at Kaiden, "Sup Elvis," he jabbed before beginning his nutrient paste. Kyon heard footsteps behind him, and turned to see Michael walking towards the mess hall. Kyon glared and watched Michael sit next to him, "What do you want?"

"I asked to speak to you when you had some free time," Michael said in a calm voice. He looked at Kaiden, giving him a look that told him to leave for the moment. After Kaiden left, Michael put a small device on the table. "Kyon, you have to be a little more careful about what you tell people. If people know that you are from the past, they'll think you are either crazy, or hold the secret to immortality."

Kyon's eyes widened as Michael started a conversation he never expected to hear from another human being, "Wait... What?" Kyon was baffled by this turn of events and was ready to throw in the towel in the fight for understanding.

"You aren't the only one from the past, actually, you are the fifth one by my count, but I don't know. There could be more. Anyway, try not to tell anyone what your actual birthdate is, or they'll think you are insane. Nice talk, if you have any questions, send me a message." Michael put his contact information on the table, stood up, and grabbed the device on the table, walked away, and left Kyon to ponder what had just happened.

Kyon finished his nutrient paste, and through it away. He almost forgot about the contact information, but remembered right before he left the mess hall. He was going to have a lot of questions for Michael next time they talked in private.

* * *

><p>Michael's Omni-tool beeped as he entered the stairwell, and he looked in both directions making no one else was inside. He sealed the doors and opened the message he received from Sean, one of the other 21st century dimension travelers.<p>

_I found Grant_, _and you are not going to believe this..._

_Where is he?_

_Grant is on the Normandy, and __ET is currently on the flotilla, but he'll meet with us when we call him_.

_I understand, we'll all be together after Shepard dies if everything goes according to my plans._

_You know what they say about best laid plans. I just hope you've accounted for everything._

_So do I. So do I.  
><em>

Michael shut off his Omni-tool and took off his glove, revealing his skin. It was covered by a diamond-hard blue substance that was slowly growing. It had been stagnant for the past few years, but now it started up again. Michael knew what it meant, his time was coming to an end. That meant that there was one path left for him, and it ended sooner than he wanted it to. Michael unsealed the doors and walked onto the bridge.

* * *

><p><strong>Arias: Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, because I sure hated writing it.<br>**

**Kyon: Then stop writing.**

**Arias: No, then you wouldn't be the star.**

**Michael: I thought I was the star, isn't that why focus shifted to me?**

**Grant: Everyone knows I'm the star in this outfit.**

**Kyon and Michael: You weren't even in this chapter.**

**Arias: Calm down you idiots, you might scare the audience away. Anyway, if you liked this don't forget to follow, favorite, and review. If you didn't well, I can't do much to change your mind can I? Anyway, until next time.**

**All: EE crew out!**


	14. Chapter 14

_Message chain between Samuel Shepard and Michael Arias through secured frequency 1._

_How is she?_

_She's doing well Samuel, a bit bitter, but that's to be expected after what we put her through._

_I just wish that I could have been there for her._

_We both know that you would have died if you did. I took the risk of changing the future by keeping you alive because I know you can do great things. Samuel, I think it has started again. *Image attachment, click to open*_

_I don't see any change in the level of growth of the dark energy crystals, but then again I don't have your body. How long has this been going?_

_About a week now._

_What? Why didn't you tell me?_

_If I did tell you, you would have forced me to abandon this phase of the plan. How long do you think I have before my body is enveloped in it?_

_If it follows the same pattern as the last time the growth started, five months, without you using biotics. With? Anything sooner than that. Depends on how much you use your biotics._

_I see. Samuel, I'm authorizing Project Grey. Approach Grant when the time is right._

_Ah, the co-pilot to the Normandy. I heard that he is one of your group._

_Yeah, he is. Also, I've found a fifth one. His name is Kyon Salgrins, according to the dossier that Jennifer got me, his only record is that he is an escaped slave. My company started a program for former slaves, make sure he gets to the top of the list. He came here for a reason, and that is still to be determined. Until then, I want him to think that we are on his side, in case we are._

_I understand. Hopefully we are the only ones that know about your type of people._

_I feel the same way, either way we need to be careful about how we act._

* * *

><p>Michael walked onto the bridge of the Normandy, and saw a blond haired service man joking around with Joker in the cockpit. Michael smiled, there was no doubt in his mind that it was Grant, no one could be that white. Before he walked up to the cockpit, he put on a neutral expression, "Grant Cleggus Adrnonicus?" he asked, using his full formal name.<p>

Grant looked back and his jaw nearly dropped when he saw Michael standing in the entrance to the cockpit, and Michael gave him a imperceptible nod telling him it was indeed the man he knew from before their lives went to hell.

"I need to speak with you in private about a matter that began seventeen years ago," without another word, Michael turned around and started walking towards the Normandy's briefing room, and Grant wasn't far behind him.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Michael turned around and felt Grant hug him, in a manly sort of way, "How many times do I need to tell you, I don't swing that way!" Michael shouted playfully, glad that the room was sound proof. He smiled as he grabbed Grant's shoulders and looked into his eyes. He was still the same man that had left for the Airforce when he was only seventeen.

"Neither do I, but you can bet that I am damn happy to see that you are still alive," Grant smiled from ear to ear as he patted Michael on the shoulders then stepped back, "I'm sorry it took this long to get back into contact with you, hell its been seventeen years and you still look practically the same, a little taller, but that's to be expected."

"A little, I'm a good three inches taller, though that isn't completely natural growth," Michael sat down in one of the chairs, "I've had physical and some slight genetic augmentations that have made me a near super-soldier. Grant, remember that game that Sean and I used to play, Mass Effect."

"Yeah, I never really paid much attention to it, wasn't my type of entertainment. Why?" Grant sat down in a chair a couple seats over from Michael and crossed his arms.

"We didn't just travel through time, we traveled through dimensions. This is the universe of Mass Effect, of that video game," Michael's voice didn't falter or show any signs of joking, which was one thing that he wasn't good at hiding. Grant knew what that meant, Michael was telling the truth, and that truth was now their reality.

Grant sighed then laughed lightly, "Well, doesn't matter if this is a video game or not, we still are alive in this universe, and nothing is going to stop us from dying if we get shot."

"Well, you took that a lot better than I thought you would," Michael said as he was dumbstruck. He rubbed his head at a loss for words because he didn't think Grant would take it so lightly.

"Why not, I'm the guy that always said that we are a story being written by some asshole on a laptop, that has nothing better to do, and is trying to avoid doing his homework."

"Just because that's what you did when we were in school, doesn't mean everyone does it," Michael chuckled as he shook his head, "As you've probably guessed, ET and Sean are here as well. From what my contacts tell me, ET is working as an ambassador between Quarians and Alliance. All I know is that he has been being moved randomly through the galaxy. I think that someone is after him, so I sent Sean to retrieve him and put him under Aria's care."

"Aria? Queen of Omega, Aria?" Grant asked in surprise, to which Michael nodded to him, "What the hell have you been doing in the last seventeen years? Wait, you said a video game..." Grant's face turned to stone, "The games you play aren't sunshine and puppies, that mean something is going down, and that isn't just Saren is it?"

"No, the Reapers are real, and they are going to come one way or another," Michael ran his fingers through his hair, "Either Nazara, the Reaper that Saren is with brings them through the Citadel, or-"

"Through the Citadel?!" Grant shouted as he jumped up, "We have to... Oh..." he sat back down and sighed, "if that was going to work, you would have done it already, wouldn't you?"

"Correct, I want events to play out as close to the game as possible," Michael told Grant with a nod, "if I told the Citadel what was going to happen, I jeopardize that. Something I learned in my time here, is that sacrifices are necessary in order to win a war. Our job is to make sure those sacrifices are kept to a minimum. There is one thing that keeps bothering me though. Has ever since I played the first game. Why doesn't Nazara just take control of the Citadel right now? I tried to reason that it was the Prothean sabotage, but that was meant only for the Keepers."

Michael took a deep breath and started pacing back and forth, when Grant looked at the ceiling, "Power," he said simply, "it takes a lot of power to actually start a ship. That's why most ships are always on, and never actually shut off."

Michael looked at Grant and dropped his jaw, "Damn, that was a simple answer. So, this wild goose chase is just so that Nazara can buy time for the rest of the Reapers a chance to wake up. That means that the reapers are calculating every move we make. With the heretic Geth on their side, that means that they can have a server devoted purely to simulations of what could happen. And with a thought process of the speed of light plus multiple platforms to think on, they could predict this entire battle."

"Then how do we beat them?" Grant asked as he closed his eyes, "if they can predict our every move?"

"Because they can't cover every variable," Michael answered as he smiled, "Currently I know of two people that don't have enough information on file to account for their variables."

"And who is that?"

"Sean and Kyon Salgrins."

"That red-head that is always butting heads with Shepard?"

"Yes, he isn't supposed to be here, because he is from our dimension," Michael responded with a smile, "that means that he wasn't just sent here willy-nilly. He has a purpose, and we have to use figure out what that is. Grant, I have a feeling that I won't be on the Normandy at all times, so I'm going to ask you to keep an eye on him for me, be his friend."

"You really have changed, you never liked manipulating people before," Grant commented as he sighed, "but I'll do it, the fate of the galaxy if far better than the morals of a few people."

"Good to see you agree with me," Michael said as he nodded, "now, if my calculations are correct, we are going to reach Noveria in an hour or two, you should get back to the helm."

"Sure thing," Grant said as he stood up, and reached out his hand, "It was good seeing you again, a sight for sore eyes."

Michael shook his hand and smile, "Likewise, let's just hope that we make it through this so all that money that my company makes can be put to good use."

"Your father's company still exists?" Grant laughed lightly, "you must be a billionaire by now."

"Trillionaire actually," Michael responded, "but that's only because the me in this dimension actually survived until now."

"Wait, you survived to be nearly two centuries? How?"

"Arias Medical and Military Organization. I had access to the most advanced medical care in the galaxy, kept me alive till I was 170. I asked the other me to get a grey-box implant so that he could transfer all his memories to me. He agreed to it."

"So, you know the history of the past century?"

"Yes," Michael replied, "it took a while, even just looking at the major historical events took a few months of searching through. But it doesn't matter, we have more important things to worry about than the history of this dimension. Now, go do your job."

"Yes sir," Grant said as he did a mock salute and walked out of the briefing room.

* * *

><p><strong>Message Chain between Aria and Michael 295/2169**

_Michael: I don't believe that Cerberus will make another push for Omega for a while, after "Aria's" return, they'll think twice about it._

_Aria: You had better be right, I'm not going to die because you made me feel comfortable. Now I know what Aria felt like when she was ruling Omega. Most of the gangs don't believe I'm the real Aria yet._

_Michael: They will, after all, Aria is just a symbol. As long as you exert your power over them with the Army I raised for you, they'll follow you as if you were, and then when the next generation comes in, they'll believe you are the one and only Aria._

_Aria: I still hate that you took my leg and arm away from me, now I have these cybernetics. I can't exert my biotics without biotic nodes in my limbs._

_Michael: When I killed Aria, I cut off her arm and leg, we had to make it seem realistic, besides cloning an arm isn't very fast and by the time we could do it, you nerves would already be dead._

_Aria: Don't you own a medical company, how do you not have any cloned limbs on standby?_

_Michael: We did, just no Asari limbs, and I wasn't about to order one to our space station in the Olympus sector._

_Aria: I understand, but I'm still not happy about it._


	15. Chapter 15

**Journal log of Samuel Shepard 2166, April 11th**

_We've been handed a young man, no more than the age of 17 or 18. His eyes are a mixture of brown and green, and his height is six foot one inches tall, or approximately 185 cm. His hair is black the length of his mid back. His body structure is fairly fit, but from his genetics he has had no modifications nor any vaccinations. Both of which are fairly common in this day and age. _

_I am currently watching over the subject, who is strapped down to the chair we put him in. The clothes that he was found in were completely saturated with high doses of radiation. The cause of which is assumed to be because he was found drifting near a mass relay. There was no signs of any wreckage around the man, and he appeared to be in a stasis field when we recovered him, which leads me to believe that he was left out there on purpose. I have no proof to back up this evidence though. _

_When he first arrived, I took it upon myself to do a full body scan of the subject, and discovered that he has biotic nodules throughout his body, like all biotics. But unlike most Biotics, he has three times as many active nodes as any other human subject to have survived an Element Zero exposure, even the subject of Project Zero at the Teltin facility on Pragia; The project that I was last assigned to. This is the first project in which I was on the lead team. The Illusive Man is very interested in creating new biotic implants, which I would be all to happy to experiment with. My only regret is that I'm not going to be able to release any of my designs to the public or Alliance as I wished.  
><em>

The subject is waking up now, logging out

- Journal Entry ended-

* * *

><p>Kyon got out of the elevator, and looked around, "I was told to come down here, now why is that?" he said outloud as he walked to the middle of the room.<p>

Ashley walked up to Kyon and slapped him on the back, "Hey there. Say, do you know how to put armor on?"

Kyon looked at Ashley and tilted his head, "Why would I know how to do that? I'm just an idiot with a gun and some good moves."

"Thought so," Ashley sighed as she grabbed Kyon by the ear and dragged him over to the Requisitions Officer, "Hey, we need to get this fool some armor, Shepard said he was going to go on the Therum mission in the breifing."

"When did this happen!" Kyon shouted as he rubbed the side of his ear, "Don't you think I need to be informed on these matters?" He looked at the Quarter Master and watched as he went through different crates and got some armor that had white as its main color with black camouflage on it.

"This is the Bulwark Armor Variant, it has an internal temperature control unit that adapts to the surrounding environment around it," the Officer explained as he set the armor on the table and opened it up, "I imagine that you might want this since we are going to Therum and from what I've heard Noviera later in this mission. While the armor makes you stick out like a sore thumb on Therum, you'll be glad you don't have to feel the heat." He pressed a button on the side of the armor, and a helmet popped out of the neck, "This experimental armor is the first to include a helmet that can be taken on or off at the push of a button. It has a two inch thick ceramic plate around all static body parts, and a Kevlar-titanium mesh in the flexible areas. Any questions?"

"Does it have a built in bathroom?" Kyon asked as he looked at the armor and picked it up.

"Why would you even..." The man tried to ask before being dumbfounded, "You aren't going to be thinking about taking a shit in the middle of a firefight." He recovered after a few seconds.

"That's why you need one, I don't want to shit myself in the battle then come back to have to clean my armor out because it doesn't have a bathroom system," Right as Kyon finished Ashley slapped him in the back of the head, "Ow! What was that for!?" he shouted as he dropped the armor, landing on his foot, "Son of a bitch!" He hopped on one foot.

"That was for asking a stupid question," Ashley answered as she picked up the armor, then threw a credit chit onto the table, "We'll take it," she said with a smile before grabbing Kyon by the ear, again, and dragging him over to the work bench.

"Stop grabbing my ear!" Kyon shouted as Ashley let go of him, "You are going to rip it off!" Kyon rubbed his head as Ashley set the armor out on the table.

"Since you are going into a combat situation, you are going to have to learn how to put your armor on in under thirty seconds," Ashley said as she looked at Kyon's clothing, "I hope you remembered to wear underwear."

"Wait, what?" Kyon asked as he looked at Ashley with a confused look, "You don't mean-"

"Strip Soldier!" Ashley shouted as she crossed her arms, her eyes burning holes through Kyon's.

Kyon didn't want to feel Ashley's wrath since she was not only a soldier, but a woman as well, started to take his clothes off until he was inside of only his boxers, "If you wanted-" Ashley hit Kyon in the stomach, to which he nearly fell to the floor. It didn't knock the wind out of him, but it hurt like hell.

"Don't talk to me like that," Ashley said as she gestured to the armor, "Start getting it on."

Kyon took a deep breath and started to take the armor apart to see what went on first, he found what looked like a wet suit on the inside of the armor and started to put it on his body. He shivered slightly as the cold material touched his skin. The spandex-like suit stuck to his skin like a cat-suit. _I didn't sign up to be in a bondage suit, _he thought as he finished putting the suit on. He then grabbed the left boot and put it on. As he was putting it on, he could feel the suit attaching itself to the under-skin and knew what it was doing.

The armor would move with his body because the under-skin was a reactive material, it would literally respond to his nervous system and make the armor move with him, allowing him to move faster, and hit harder, he smiled as he started to pick up speed and put on the other boot, then the leg-pieces. The legs snapped onto the boots. Kyon continued to put his armor on, and when he finished yelled, "Time!"

"Ten minutes and thirty-two seconds," Ashley said as she looked at her Omni-tool, "we don't have time right now for you to practice, so we'll get straight into weapon's theory." Ashley took Kyon over to the weapon's bench and grabbed a pistol, "Do you know how to handle a fire-arm?"

Kyon was about to answer yes, when he remembered his cover-story, he took a deep breath and shook his head, "Theoretically, yes," he said not telling her that he had been to target practice with his father when he was younger.

"Alright, put your helmet on," Ashley said, gesturing to the button on the side of Kyon's neck.

Kyon pressed the button and felt the collapsible helmet form around his head, almost perfectly, "Alright, now what?"

Ashley gave Kyon the pistol, and as soon as it touched his gloved hand, it linked into his HUD. He could see a reticle moving where he aimed the gun. He smiled a little, and looked at Ashley, "Is there a virtual trainer?" Kyon asked.

"A what?"

"A program that allows you to fire the gun at targets without actually firing the ammo," Kyon said as he turned the safety off, "but judging from your reaction, I would think not." He took a deep breath, "So, what's next?"

"When you fire a gun, always use both hands to steady your shots, gives you more accuracy and helps with recoil," Ashley said as she raised Kyon's hands and put them into position, "and always have your feet spread apart, that way you don't trip over yourself when you are running."

Kyon already knew all of this, but he would listen to Ashley's lesson so that he didn't give anything about him away, "Alright," Kyon adjusted his stance to match what Ashley was telling him, then he took a deep breath, "How's this?"

"Good," Ashley said as she pushed Kyon's shoulder, and he didn't budge, "You have a good stance, you might just be a good soldier yet," she joked as she pat him on the back, "I'm sorry about the drill Sargent routine, but its the easiest way for me to get things done when I'm teaching someone about weapons."

Kyon sighed as he pressed the button on the side of the gun, and collapsed it, "I understand," he said as he put the gun at his belt, feeling the magnetic clip latch onto it, "I would just like it if you gave a little warning next time," Kyon took a deep breath as he started folding his clothes and put them on a nearby crate, "When are we going out?"

"In twenty minutes, the Quarian and Aries are also coming with us," Ashley said as she turned to her locker and started getting her armor out.

"The Quarian has a name," Kyon said in an agitated tone, pressing the button on his helmet to collapse it into the neck, "and her name is Tali." Kyon grabbed his DER and attached it to his forearm just behind his Omni-tool, he took a deep breath as he covered the straps with a thin metal and started to attach it to the armor.

"Why do you act like that?" Ashley asked as she started undressing in front of her locker, "You can't actually treat them like they are humans."

"And why can't I?" Kyon nearly yelled as he looked at her, then quickly turned away when he saw that she was undressing, "That's like a white person saying a black person is an animal compared to them or vise versa."

Ashley quickly put her armor on, then looked at Kyon, "And you believe that we are the same race? We don't even have the same type of DNA."

"So?" Kyon asked as he turned back to her, his eyes starting to glow a pale green as his emotions started to bubble up, "She is still a sentient being, still a person. I'm not going to disregard that just because she isn't human. Doing that makes us worse than scum, because not only is she a person, she is one of our comrades. What if she was one of those men you lost on Eden Prime?" Kyon started thinking about what he had just said, he couldn't remember Ashley telling him about losing any men on Eden Prime, the information really just came to him at that moment.

"What did you say?" Ashley asked as she took a step back, her face filled with hurt, "How did you...? Why?"

Kyon could see that he had emotionally kicked Ashley in the stomach and immediately looked at the floor, "I'm sorry," he said as he looked at the ground, "I shouldn't have said that."

"You're right," she said her voice turning cold, "you shouldn't have," Ashley turned away from Kyon and started grabbing her equipment, "I'll watch your back, but I'm not going to save your ass if you get in trouble," she said before walking to the other side of the cargo bay.

Kyon silently cursed as he went back to welding the DER onto his armor, "Why is it that I can't treat anyone decently in this time period," he asked as he heard footsteps approaching him, he didn't look at who they were, "Go away," he growled before they reached him.

"Oh," he heard Tali's filtered voice say as the footsteps stopped, "I'm sorry," she said, her voice obviously depressed by Kyon's reaction.

Kyon turned around, "I'm sorry," he told her as he reached out and grabbed her shoulder, "I just am having a bad day right now, and I have a feeling its going to get worse," he took a deep breath, "Is there anything you wanted to say to me?"

"I just wanted to wish you good luck out there, and that I'm glad I'm going on the my first mission with you," she said in a more cheerful tone, "I'm glad to know that you'll be watching my back, just like you have since we met each other."

Kyon chuckled as he nodded, "Sure thing, I'll keep you safe from the big bad Geth," he said with a joking smile and patted her on the shoulder, "just be sure that you watch my back as well, I'll be counting on you Tali."

"Sure thing."

And with that, Tali walked away from Kyon, leaving him to finish his work with the DER. Kyon couldn't help but think about Tali's presence on the ship, he was glad to have her here, but was he the only one. Ashley seemed a big hater of aliens in general, Wrex was more or less her for the fight and couldn't care less, Garrus was focused solely on finding Saren, Shepard didn't like either of them, and Kaiden followed Shepard's words like a lost pup. Maybe Aries, but that's because he knew she was necessary, there were so many things that were starting to confuse him. His space adventure was starting to look like it was going to blow up, and not from canon fire.

* * *

><p><strong>I would have just put the Therum chapters up, but the files that I kept them in are gone, and I can't find them so I'm going to have to rewrite them from scratch. That means its going to be quite a while before I upload those ones again, that's really going to bite my chum. Well, until next time.<strong>

**Arias out**


	16. Chapter 16

**Intercepted Message chain between The Illusive Man and Miranda Lawson. 2169, 5/27**

**I'm disappointed in you Miranda, not only have you failed to retrieve Operative Aries, you failed to stop him from taking Omega from us.**

**I'm sorry sir, I won't let it happen again.**

**I would hope not. I expect him to be in front of me the next time we see each other, or reading his obituary in the news.**

**You're changing the order to dead or alive?**

**Yes, we don't need Aries, just his DNA. I'm starting a new project, it involves recreating someone with their fighting ability and giving them a history we want.**

**Sir, isn't that a little unethical?**

**Nothing is unethical when it comes to the survival of the human race. Aries has special abilities that I want to unlock. I know you can do it, only someone with your knowledge of him can.**

**Sir, I'm not sure if I do know him. When he worked for us, he seemed to be a one man army, incapable of working with others, but from the data from Omega suggest otherwise. **

**Everyone has something to hide, even you Miranda, but you know him better than anyone else. If you fail, I will send him in.**

**Then I won't fail.**

**[Message chain ends]**

* * *

><p>Kyon took a deep breath when he heard the elevator doors open, he turned to see both commander Shepard and Aries walk out, one looked extremely agitated and the other as if he didn't have a care in the world. When the two separated from each other, Kyon walked over to Michael and raised an eyebrow, "So, what happened in there?"<p>

Michael shook his head, his composure slipping a little to show his agitation, "She is pissed that I took Kaiden off of this mission because he was having a little trouble with his migraines," he grabbed a trench coat out of his locker and dropped it onto the work bench.

Kyon was surprised by the loud thud that came from the trench coat and went to pick it up, "God damn, this must weigh at least fifty kilos," Kyon said as he looked at Michael, "You wear this into battle?"

"Yes, it is better than a one-twenty kilo battle armor and it offers decent protection since I installed a Kinetic barrier module in it. The only problem, no air conditioning, and it is hot as hell if I get shot at." Michael removed his glasses, keeping his eyes closed until he put his visor on, "MARS, activate Visor OS."

"You have an OS in your visor?" Kyon asked as he gave Michael his trench coat, "Don't tell me you are going to play Tetris while we are in the middle of battle."

"Nah, I'll do it while Shepard is driving the tank," Michael replied as he threw the coat on as if it weighed nothing, "Besides, you won't be able to tell since you'll be in the gunner's position," Michael activated the magnetic clip in his coat and put his sword onto it, then started walking towards the Mako.

Kyon followed Michael his eyes widening, "I"m doing what?" he grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around.

"Don't worry, it's just like an arcade game, except you don't get three lives. You'll do fine," Michael told Kyon as he smiled confidently, "Don't worry," Michael patted him on the shoulder before turning around and getting in.

Kyon stayed outside of it, scratching the back of his head. He winced as he pulled out a few of his hairs and saw that they were caught in some of the helmet gyros, "Great, now I'm going to have to cut my hair when I get back," he said as he sat in the chair in the middle of the tank. He sighed as it went up into the turret, "Spiffy," he said out of surprise.

After a few minutes of trying to learn what the turret could do, not actually turning the gun so he didn't alert anyone that he was inside of it, Kyon heard the sound of argument. He pressed the button to lower the seat and saw Ashley and Tali fighting over where to sit.

"What's the problem?" He asked as he saw that there was only one seat left, "Well, that's the problem." He looked at them and frowned, "I'm going back up," he pressed the button again, and the chair slowly went up, "God damn, go slower please..." he muttered, suddenly the seat went even slower, "Really? That's voice activated?"

"Just sit on someone's lap!" Shepard shouted through the tank as she got into it and climbed into the driver's seat.

Kyon laughed until he felt the chair going back down, "Damn it, I just had to laugh, didn't I?" Before the chair got down, Kyon pressed the button to cover his head in the helmet, and saw Tali wringing her hands, "Yes, you can sit with me," Kyon said before she could ask her question, his voice sounding less exasperated because of the helmet filter.

Without a word, Tali climbed onto Kyon's lap and held on as the chair went back up, "Thank you," she said after the chair stopped, "I'm sorry if-"

"Don't be," Kyon said as he smiled, "Not every day a nice girl like you sits on my lap," he was trying to make light of the situation, but he was never any good at things like that, at most he could make himself look like an idiot, "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," he said as he scratched the back of his helmet.

"Hey, lovebirds," Michael said through the speaker, "hold on tight, we are about to drop to the surface."

"Drop!" Kyon shouted as he threw his head back, hitting it on the back of the seat, "We aren't landing?"

"Nope, there are Geth signatures all over the place, there is no good LZ in the area of the dig site," Michael responded, his voice cracking a little as the Mako lurched forward, "Hold onto something, Shepard isn't armor certified."

Kyon took a deep breath as he felt his stomach shoot up into his throat, "Just great," he said as he grabbed the straps of the seat and put them around both Tali and himself, sandwiching together.

There was a small reprieve from the the stomach wrenching feeling of the fall before the jolting of the two from the Mako hitting the ground, "That was... fun," Kyon said as he took the straps off of them, "Are you okay?"

"A little breathless," Tali answered before visibly taking a deep breath, "but otherwise completely fine. Though I wish I had a chair as a cushion now."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Kyon said as he took a deep breath.

"Shepard," Grant said through the comm system, "There are some strange energy signatures emanating from the ruins. I mean, like off the fucking charts strange. I'm going to run some diagnostics on it, see what I come up with."

In the background, Joker could be heard mumbling about how it was his turn to tell Shepard something, but that was interrupted by Michael giving a brief status report of what they were going to expect. There were quite a few Geth signatures along what seemed to be a near direct path to the ruins and that we should spend as little time outside the tank, to limit heat exhaustion, "Is that everything?" Shepard asked after he was done, the tone in her voice suggesting that she was itching to run something over.

Kyon couldn't be sure if it wasn't Michael, him, or the Geth that she wanted to run over more, but that didn't matter to him, "I'm good, just tell me where to shoot," he said simply, trying to avoid her throwing him out of the tank and into the lava pits around them. Kyon could feel Shepard's smile as she put her foot to the gas, making the tank accelerate at a ridiculous speed.

"Oh, I forgot to mention, Shepard is not Armor certified," Michael said through the com, filling everyone's head with dread.


	17. Chapter 17

**Message chain between CEO of AMMO industries, Michael Arias, and Director of finance, Telria Arias. Dated 2171, April 6th:**

Telria: Michael, The board of directors would like to know what project _Silent truth _is, considering that you have put trillions of credits into the project. _  
><em>

Michael: It is one of my new Colonization initiatives.

Telria: Since when did we start funding colonization projects? And why didn't you seek the board of Directors' Approval.

Michael: Oh yes, those stuck up ass holes, if you would check the file that's on your desk.

Telria: Severance packages? What is the meaning of this?

Michael: The former head of this company, my father, thought that he needed the board in his later years. I don't feel that they are necessary as they only hinder my ability to lead the company with doubt and second guessing.

Telria: We both know that he isn't your father, your biological father died centuries ago, you are the result of someone's narcissism and loath of anyone not worthy of his time.

Michael: So, should I start calling you 'daughter' then?

Telria: Don't patronize me, you'll never be my father, all you are is his one success at cloning himself.

Michael: The explanation for my existence is a bit more complicated than that, but I'll let you figure it out yourself.

Telria: You've kept when it comes to anything you do, I demand that you shed some light on your background. We both know that it is impossible to create a clone that has accelerated aging in the beginning of their life and standard in the beginning.

Michael: Yes that is true, it is also impossible to truly control a clone because they will have their own free will and experiences. Even if I am a direct copy of your father, our thought processes are different and therefore I am not him but a creation of his. Isn't that exactly what you are in a sense?

Telria: We are not the same, do not even think that we are on the same level.

Michael: You are right, I'm better than you, or do I need to send you a recording of our little competition to see who is more fit to lead this company, again?

Telria: You will die a decrepit old man.

Michael: No, I'll die long before I become decrepit. Then you can have what's yours, and not one moment sooner, of course, by that time you'll see that my way of running things is a bit better than yours.

Telria: I will not lose to an arrogant Human.

Michael: And I can not lose to an ignorant Asari. Goodbye, sister.

-Message chain end-

* * *

><p><strong>Therum<strong>

"Two Armatures at three and twelve O'clock!" Michael shouted as two pulse rounds hit the side of the Mako, "Kyon, focus on the closest one, Shepard, vent your anger on the second."

"It isn't easy to fire like this," Kyon said to himself as he spun the turret around, disorienting himself and Tali, who was sitting on his lap for the Mako ride because of how little room there was in the tank.

"I'm sorry..." Tali said as she looked down, obviously embarrassed.

"Don't be," Kyon said as he pulled the trigger on the cannon and followed up with a volley of bullets from the chain gun, "I like the challenge," he smiled under his helmet as he saw the armature explode, before he felt the Mako hit something and bounced, "What the hell was that?"

"Shepard just ran it over," Michael said with a chuckle as the Mako backed up onto the head of the armature.

Shepard put the Mako in park and hit the gas, causing the wheels to shred the Armature's head, "Alright, let's get moving."

"Joker, I'm marking the areas where we encountered Geth, after we clear out of each area, send a salvage team to retrieve any spare parts we can get. We'll be able to sell them to the highest bidder for funding."

"Is that wise?" Tali asked as the Mako continued forward, "Giving Geth technology to private companies?"

"If we don't, someone else will," Michael said as he worked on his Omni-tool giving the Coordinates to Joker and Grant, "at least this way, the money will go to a good cause instead of lining someone else's pockets."

"True," Kyon said as he took a deep breath, "just keep ten percent of the materials for me, I could make something useful, and if I'm lucky we might be able to reprogram some of the Geth operating systems to for tactical analysis."

"Don't lie, you just want to make yourself a friend because you are lonely," Michael joked as he saw what he knew was a Geth outpost ahead with heavy turrets guarding the front gate, "Looks like we'll need to go around, there should be a side passage to the right Shepard."

"I'm not lonely, I have Tali," Kyon said as he patted her on the shoulder, somewhat awkwardly due to their current position, "What does it look like Aries?"

Michael scanned the side-road that they were about to go through, and sighed. Everything was going according to plan so far, "Shepard, stop for a moment. Looks like they put a turret in the side passage, judging from the armor, a few well placed shots should take it out. Tali, you know more about Geth technology than any of us, do you think there will be a weak spot?"

An image of the turret appeared in front of Kyon and Tali, allowing them to make assumptions about it, "Um, maybe if you shot it at the base of the cannon, where it swivels, you'll be able to hit it's power source, assuming the Geth haven't reinforced it under the mechanisms."

"Got it, aim at the swivel joint," Kyon said as he smiled, "Commander, ready when you are."

Without another word, Shepard slammed on the gas, turning hard and nearly flipping the MAKO, Kyon was barely able to aim where he needed and fired the cannon. The shot blew open the armor, revealing the power source, Kyon followed up by holding down the trigger to the mini-gun. The Mako finally leveled out, but bounced around making him miss his target. Before he could get another shot off at the turret, Shepard slammed into it at full speed and smashed the power core. The turret gave way to Shepard's mad driving, and they continued until they turned into the Geth outpost.

"Kyon, fire at will," Michael said as he detected Geth all around them. Michael unbuckled his seat-belt, and jumped out of the Mako as Kyon started firing at the Geth. Michael took out his sword, and smiled as the electrified edge came to life, "Let's dance," he said quietly as he dashed forward at the nearest Geth Unit, a Juggernaut, and swung his sword in an upward motion. The Geth was split in two up to his chest, where the blade was stopped by the armor of the large unit. It didn't matter, the Geth's electrical systems were fried by the blade, making it fall to the ground. The Geth nearest to Michael Perceived him as the most immediate threat and turned to fire, when a biotic orb flew from the Mako and destroyed the Geth's arms, "Thanks Athena," Michael said without looking back. He threw his blade to his left, impaling another Geth as he took out an SMG from his coat and unloading in a second to his right.

The battle was over, almost as soon as it began, without anyone receiving any major injuries, "I'll go open the gates," Michael said as he grabbed his sword from the Geth rocket trooper he had impaled with it. The white synthetic blood squirting out as the sword exited. Michael took out a circular device and dropped it on the ground. It was a transmitter, letting the Normandy know that the area was clear for them to pick up and salvage the Geth.

Michael went into the building where he knew the gate control would be, and took out his pistol. He made no attempt to hide his presences as he walked up to the lone Geth trooper and unloaded into it. Michael took a deep breath as he collapsed the gun and put it on the inisde of his jacket. He pressed the open button and opened up the gate for the Mako to pass through, when he thought about something, "Hey, Joker, when you come to pick up the Geth salvage, be careful because there are still a couple of Geth turrets in front of the outpost."

"Why don't you destroy them?"

"We are running on a schedule," Michael walked out of the building and into the Mako and nodded at Shepard. He sat down, almost at the same time she started driving, and put his seat-belt on, "Be careful, alright?"

"Why are you worried about them?" Athena asked, "It isn't like they'll blow up the ship."

"Because Athena, we need to do our best to keep everyone alive, or else we risk losing our humanity in order to save the galaxy."

"Wasn't it you that told me the end justifies the means?" Athena asked as she looked at Michael, "Turning soft on me now?"

"No, just thinking about how I lived my life," Michael took a deep breath as he squeezed his left arm, feeling the hardened substance that was once his skin. He took a deep breath as he looked back at the radar, "Kyon, contacts at three and nine o'clock."

* * *

><p><strong>AN Sorry, it has been a while, but I wrote this chapter, over the course of a few months, so hopefully you all like it.**


	18. Chapter 18

**So, I decided that I'm going to "End" this portion of the story after Therum, one because I want to change the POV to first person, and that I don't want to do that mid-story. And two, because if it feels like a new story to me, I might be better at writing it. That being said, there are at least two more chapters to this story, including this one, because when I originally wrote this, I got Therum to four chapters. Anyway, enjoy the show, and tell me what you think about my decision.**

* * *

><p>Michael took a deep breath as the Mako came to a stop, "We'll have to go on foot from here," he said without looking at the rocks in front of him. He knew they were there, even without looking. That was the thing about living in a video game you played. The environments matched.<p>

Michael stepped out of the Mako, followed by Tali and Kyon, "Is it just me, or is hotter now than it was last time we were outside?" The latter of the two asked, attempting to pull at his collar, "I know my suit has air-conditioning, but goddamned, it is really hot out here."

"How do you think those without AC suits feel?" Michael asked, though he wasn't visibly sweating, "Be careful, motion sensors are detecting a lot of activity in front of us. What's the plan Shepard?" Michael asked as the last two occupants of the Mako came out.

"Are you still as good with a sniper as you were back on earth?" Shepard asked as she pulled out her shotgun, "Because if you are, both Ashley and you will go to the ridge and provide sniper support. Kyon, Tali, and I will keep their attention on us with a frontal attack."

"Why am I the one always being shot at?" I asked Tali as I sighed, reluctantly taking out my shotgun, "I mean, its nice and all, but I swear I'm going to lose a limb to these assholes someday."

"I'm surprised we even made it this far," Tali said without a single fault in her voice, "I'm just a hacker with a pension for killing Geth, and you... What are you anyway?"

"I'm a delivery boy," Kyon said as he smiled, looking to the others and seeing that it was time to head out, "Com'on," he started jogging to catch up with Shepard.

"Keelah," Tali sighed as she followed, "You aren't even military trained?"

"Nope, in fact, the first time I killed was when I met you," Kyon smiled sadly as he looked at his hands, "But what keeps me going, is that if I kill others won't be killed or have to kill."

"You're naive," Shepard said as she ducked into cover, prompting the other two to do it as well, "It doesn't matter if you kill for other people, other people are still going to be killed or kill."

"Someone's awfully pessimistic," Kyon said to himself, taking a deep breath as he checked his shotgun, still working, but the overheat counter was already a quarter up, "Guess hot planets means hot guns."

"_Shepard, we are in position," _Michael chimed in over the radio, telling us that it was time to make our push up the hill.

"Take the shot on the Geth on the hill, we'll deal with the ones in the valley," Shepard said as she waited for the crack of the sniper rounds.

Once they went off, Shepard jumped out of cover and started glowing with biotics, charging at the closest Geth, and knocking it down to the ground. Kyon and Tali ran from cover to cover behind her, and fired off when they got close enough for the shotgun's effective range.

* * *

><p>As Ashley and Michael were picking off Geth who peaked out of cover, Ashley thought of something to talk about with the agent, "So, you and Shepard seem to know each other. Was she always so bitchy?"<p>

"Believe it or not," Michael said in between shots, "Shepard was a daddy's girl when I met her. That was seventeen years ago. It was when I first officially entered the Alliance."

"Officially?" Ashley quirked an eyebrow, though it was unseen by Michael.

"I was part of a black-ops group for about two years before I left and joined Alliance navy," Michael shot the last Geth in his vision, and looked at Ashley, "Do you remember the fall of Omega?"

"Yeah, it wall all over the news. Aria T'Loak was supposedly killed by a lone human who stormed Afterlife," Ashley's eyes widened as she came to a realization, "that was you? You couldn't have been more than-"

"Seventeen," Michael finished Ashley's sentence for her, "I was seventeen when I usurped Aria from her throne, and no, I didn't kill her," Michael was lying, he had killed that Aria T'Loak, "I removed an arm and a leg, but I did kill her daughter. Aria is still alive and kicking, she even retook Omega two years after the fall." Michael checked for Geth again, and when he didn't see any he motioned for the two of them to move out and regroup with Shepard.

"Alright, everyone's here, let's move," Shepard said as she started walking up the final hill to the dig site, "Hold up," Shepard raised her hand as something on her motion sensors blipped, "Contact, damn it's moving fast."

Michael took out his SMG, and fired at the bridge above us, the Geth that was hiding under it fell to the ground with a thud, "Geth Hoppers," he said as he ran into cover, "There might be-" Michael was cut off as a Geth drop ship flew over us, and launched a giant pod into the ground. Michael's features narrowed as he realized what it was, "Shepard, that's a Colossus, get into cover!"

The rest of the group jumped into cover, and looked over as a larger version of an Armature transformed from the pod that landed, "How did he know that was an Colossus?" Tali asked as she looked over to Michael, who was the only one on his side.

"I don't-" Kyon was cut off by the cover of boxes that they were hiding behind being destroyed, throwing all three of them back, "Damn," Kyon said as he looked at the Colossus, seeing a blue ball of energy hurtling towards them.

Kyon reacted out of instinct, holding his hand out to try and stop it. To his surprise a pale green wall appeared in front of them and absorbed the energy ball. Kyon's eyes changed color as he got up slowly, and started walking towards the Colossus, the barrier moving with him, "Tali, how to I stop this thing as quickly as possible?"

"The-the cables in its neck!" she shouted, awestruck by the display of biotics that Kyon was presenting. She had never seen biotics in the color his were before.

Kyon took the knife that Ashley had given him, and prepared to throw it. After a moment, He threw the knife enhancing his strength with biotics. It flew threw the barrier and into the neck of the Colossus, creating a crater from the amount of force used to throw the knife. The Colussus fell to the ground inactive.

Michael looked at Kyon and knew that they had much to talk about when they got the chance, "Well, I don't think that could have gone any better," he said as he watched Shepard, Tali, and Ashley get off of the floor, "Are you three okay?"

"We're fine," Shepard said as she eyed Kyon, "What the hell was that? You're a biotic with that much strength, and you didn't use it until now?"

"Shepard, we don't have time. We have to find the doctor," Michael said as he grabbed her on the shoulder, "Talk about this when we get back to the ship, the important thing now, is that we can continue the mission."

Shepard's face was still angry, but it calmed down a bit when Michael let go of her, "Fine," she agreed reluctantly, "We are going to have a chat when we get back to the ship," Shepard told Kyon as she passed him.

"I don't like what that conversation has to offer," Kyon said as he looked at the other three, "What, no backup?"

"Not with Shepard being the enemy," Ashley said as she followed the Commander.

"I'd rather savor the new chance at life you've given us, Kyon," Tali said as she followed Ashley's lead.

"Oh, come on!" Kyon said as he looked at Michael, "Please?" his voice was really small and squeaky.

Michael laughed as he pat Kyon on the back, "I already saved your ass, you are on your own from here."

Kyon groaned as he followed Michael and the rest of the group into the ruins.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry, no additional information on the universe I've created via messages between two people this time. Didn't really have anything planned, plus this is already a long chapter. Though I think I may have had longer chapters before.<strong>


	19. Chapter 19

**Codex ****Entry****:** **_Crystallized_ _Eezo_.**

**Like most elements, Element Zero has a crystallized form, but the process to which crystalline Eezo is created is almost primitive in nature. The one way that it has been created, due to the experimentation of Cerberus on Agent Ares is the extreme condensation of element zero in an organic body. This causes Element Zero to seemingly grow out of the host, causing crystallization of the body and internal organs. It is unknown what happens when the body is completely crystallized, though it is assumed that the subject will die. Agent Ares, the only known host to crystallized Eezo, despite the degree his body has changed, has not yet died of organ failure, despite 80% of his lungs, 10% of his heart, 33% of his digestive system, and 42% of his body being crystallized as of March first, 2181.**

* * *

><p><strong>Conversation, captured on March 1st, 2181, by AMMO security devices between Michael Arias, current CEO of AMMO, and Samuel Shepard, presumed dead since 2172.<strong>

"The more you use the B.A.D, the more your body is going to continue to crystallize, look at these charts. We don't know what's going to happen to you Michael. You are my friend, and as far as I know, the only person who knows what the hell is going to happen in the future. We can't exactly rely on Sean to give us information, as his predictions are only true half of the time."

"Sam, I try not to use the device, but sometimes it is needed. Cerberus agents need to be dealt with. If it is realized that I'm not dead, then it won't be a stretch to figure out that you aren't, and neither of us want that. Don't worry, I've been taking precautions in case I don't make it as far as I've planned. Sean will be able to lead us, along with Kil'tasi's cooperation, we'll have fleets in the terminus ready for the Reapers."

"What good are they if they don't have their admiral?"

"Sam, I wasn't the one meant to lead them. Athena is, as much as you oppose it. She will be the first SpecTRE, she will find the conduit, which I've already given the go ahead to recover it after she uses it."

"You put so much trust in someone else, haven't you learned your mistakes? We can't trust other people to do what needs to be done, look at Lawson, as soon as we let her in, she turned on us. So much for thinking you had an ally in her."

"It was naive of me to think we could turn her so fast, I'll admit that, but Shepard will do everything we need her to, as long as we don't try to stop her."

"Michael, we need to be smart about this, how can we influence Shepard to become the person we need her to, if we have no idea what she is thinking?"

"Don't worry, I have a plan."

"You always have a plan."

"Yeah, well this one isn't thought of on the spot. I've spent seventeen years thinking this up. How is recruitment going?"

"We've been able to convert half of the blue suns mercenaries that we've hired into AMMO security, a quarter of the eclipse, and five percent of the Bloodpack, mostly Krogan that have a bone to pick with the current leaders."

"Acceptable numbers, that gives us a sizable army, continue recruitment efforts, the less we pay the mercenaries for their help, the more reliable the armies become. What about the _Silent Truth?"_

_"_It's last report was received a month ago, right on schedule. They reported something on their long range sensors, large and plentiful. Do you think-"

"Activate the Quantum Entanglement Comms relay, I need to give them these next orders myself."

"Its still experimental, we have no idea if it works."

"It'll work, trust me, and we don't have the time to let them dawdle out there, especially next to the reapers. They should be completely deactivated right now, waiting for Nazara to activate the Citadel relay. We need the crew of the Silent Truth to tether one of the larger ones away so that they can strip it down and study it with the experimental neural dampeners."

* * *

><p>Kyon took a deep breath as the door to the ruins closed, and the AC installed in the doorway turned on. He was about to say something when he remembered that him complaining would be taken the wrong way considering the only other person with AC in their suit, would be Tali, and even he didn't know if she actually did or not. He only assumed. He looked around and sighed, "So, anyone want to bet that there is some sort of lava river in the walls of this place?"<p>

"Wouldn't surprise me if the Prothean ruins built here were geo-thermal powered," Michael replied as he pulled out his sniper rifle, then removed the scope from it, "if they did, that means they could still be active."

"Who cares, let's get the Asari and get out of here," Athena told them as she switched to her shotgun, "Unless we trigger some sort of self-destruct mechanism, I don't think we have to worry about lava gushing out of the walls."

Michael looked at Athena and sighed, "You are batshit insane Athena," he told her as he kept moving forward.

"Shut it, you were thinking the same thing," She responded smiling as she moved forward, obviously happy that she was able to perturb the Spec Ops officer.

"Yeah, but I would wait until I know we can get out first, then I would blow the place to hell."

"Can we stop talking about blowing up a fucking volcano?" Kyon interjected as he walked in front of the two trigger-happy psychos, "I mean, I would really like it if I got out of this place with all of my limbs attached to my body." He took a deep breath as he looked back at the group, "So, unless you want to stand in this godforsaken place, let's get a move-"

Kyon's rave about the insanity that was Shepard and Michael was cut off by the sound of pulse rounds hitting Kyon's kinetic barrier, "Get down, dumbass!" Michael shouted as he tackled Kyon to the ground, his sniper rifle flying from his hand as he landed badly, "Athena, Tali. Singularity, Overload."

The two women responded on instinct, and followed Michael's commands, the resulting combination creating an explosion and throwing the two Geth over the railing. Michael stood up and looked in the direction his sniper flew in, and sighed as he saw only the scrape marks left from it falling over the rails, Michael silently cursed as he pulled out a pistol and knife.

"What are you going to do, stab them to death?" Ashley asked as she offered her sniper rifle to Michael, "I think this will be a bit more effective than the pizza cutter."

"Never underestimate the usefulness of a throwing knife in a world of kinetic barriers Ashley," Michael told her as he started walking forward again, "Especially when they are custom-made."

"Sorry about that," Kyon said as he stood up, looking to the side. Kyon mentally kicked himself for being useless, it wasn't a feeling he liked very much. In fact, it probably contributed more to his affinity to technology than anyone would ever know. Kyon made sure his Bio-Reg was working, and hit it a bit, "Prototypes," he muttered under his breath as he followed Michael, and followed by the rest of the group.

"So," Ashley said after about thirty seconds to break the silence, "It seems like you and Shepard know each other, Ares. Would you like to tell us how you two met?"

"Old friends," Athena said before Michael could answer, looking at him to see what he would say.

"I put her forward for the N program," Michael said after a few seconds, deciding it was safe to tell them that, "Then advised the Admiralty board to consider Athena for the honor of being SpecTRe," Michael shrugged as then came to an elevator, "All aboard."

"You put my name forward?" Athena asked as everyone got into the elevator.

"Not officially no, I'm still dead in public records. I had the Quarian-human ambassador do it for me, he's a good friend of mine from my days in university, Edward Torres."

"Uncle E.T.?" Tali asked as she was taken aback, "I didn't know he had become an ambassador."

"Only person suited for the job Tali," Michael said as he looked to the side and pressed the elevator button to go down, "Hear that?"

Everyone was silent as they tried to listen to what Michael had heard, "Rotors?" Kyon asked as he realized what they were, "drones?"

"Good ear, drone rotors," Michael said as he smiled at Kyon, "now why can't we see where these drones are?" Michael threw his knife, which was connected to his wrist via an Omni-string. The knife stopped in mid-air, and revealed a drone that was hiding with a cloak, "Interesting, I've never seen Geth use this type of strategy before."

"What strategy?" Tali asked as she watched the drone, "That drone doesn't have a weapon,"

"It's observing us," Michael pulled the drone towards them and grabbed it.

The rotors on the drone turned off, and Michael examined it even more, "The rotors are just for show, they weren't doing anything besides making a little noise," he said as he turned the drone over and opened the back of it, "It seems even the Geth have factions," he said seemingly to himself as he pulled out a OSD, "Smart bastard," he said to himself, "Disappear for a few weeks, then give me a message in a place you knew I would be."

"What are you talking about?" Tali asked staying as far away from the drone as possible, "What if that thing was booby trapped?"

"Please, Edward's a pacifist," Michael responded as he let go of the drone, "Tell him thanks for the update," Michael said before the drone disappeared, "Did I mention Edward has been to Rannoch?" Michael said as he looked at Tali, who's glowing eyes seemed to get wider. Before Tali could ask about what Michael had just said the elevator stopped abruptly, "But," Michael said as he kept himself up, "that is a conversation for another time."

Michael jumped down to the floor and motioned that it was clear, "I think I see the entrance to the ruins," he announced as he made his way forward.

"Don't go off on your own!" Shepard shouted as she followed him forward.

The rest of the group followed, not wanting to be left behind, or worse caught separated from the seemingly invincible weapons that were Commander Shepard and Agent Ares. Kyon took a deep breath as out of the corner of his eye he saw a green holographic orb on the level below them, where Ares and Shepard were going. He was about to ask Tali about it when the voice in the back of his mind told him to not mention it.

Kyon made a grunt to himself due to his annoyance at his inability to even decide what he could talk about, and this drew Ashley's attention to the red-headed engineer, "What's wrong?" She asked out of curiosity.

"Nothing, just having an internal argument with the voice in my head, and trying not to seem insane at the same time. It's quite hard, I must tell you," Kyon could tell that Ashley thought that it was simply a deflection off of what he was actually thinking, but he was telling the truth. Ever since the voice started appearing, he's had less and less control over what he did. He was starting to wonder if that strange device he made for that alien had other effects other than time travel. He took a deep breath as he placed his gloved hand on his helmet. After the group got down to where the overly eager operative was, he looked at the orb again, but this time had the urge to touch it, "Make up your damn mind," he said to the voice as he walked over to the orb, taking his gun out in case a Geth trooper decided to pop up from the shadows.

Everyone else hadn't noticed Kyon slip away from the group, due to their sudden facination with the Asari levitating on the other side of the blue barrier. Shepard decided to start interrogating the woman while she couldn't get away, or put up much of a fight, but it didn't really work due to her threats not being very feasible at the moment.

"I don't know about my mother," the woman pleaded as she tried to move her arms, but I am perfectly sure that we can discuss this in further detail once we are out of these ruins, and away from the Geth!" She shouted the last part as the force holding her in the air was released, dropping her like a tone of bricks.

Following that event, was the barrier falling down, and everyone looked around, "Hey, where's Kyon?" Tali asked as she looked to their left, and saw the red-headed man picking up some sort of glowing machine from a compartment that had opened in front of him.

"What did you just do?" Michael asked as he looked over at Kyon, "Never mind, the barrier is down, so let's get out of here."

"I agree," Shepard said as she walked over to the Asari, "Miss T'Soni, while I highly doubt you have anything to do with your mother aiding Saren, you still have to come with us," she grabbed the Asari by the arm, and dragged her deeper into the complex, "There's an elevator back there, right? Can you turn it on?"

"I might be able to, last time I tampered with this facility I got caught in some security field though," she told Shepard as she tried her best to keep up with the woman dragging her, while the rest of the group followed close behind.

Liara started pressing buttons on the console, then looked up, "The power has been disconnected," she looked over at Kyon who had just arrived with the rest of the group, "What is that?" She asked looking down at the box he was carrying in his hand.

"I have no idea," he told her as he lifted it up, "I found it inside of some hidden compartment, then all the lights in this place went out."

Everyone looked at Kyon before Michael slapped him in the back of the head, "Next time you have the ability to pull something out of Prothean ruins, resist the urge to act like a child."

Kyon rubbed the back of his head as he put the box down, "Oh, like you wouldn't? Shepard touches everything in existence hoping to find a new gun," Kyon said referencing their little escapade where Athena was searching through a box, and failed to notice the Geth trooper behind her, only half an hour ago.

Everyone then turned their head at Shepard who was examining the differences between two pistols, "What?" She asked as she broke one down into Omni-gel, "Having the right gun for the job is crucial in my line of work. I am a SPECtre after all."

Michael shook his head in disappointment, "This is the person who's hands I put the fate of the galaxy in," he muttered under his breath so that no one could hear it. After a few moments, Michael took the box from Kyon, "I'm keeping this with me for the time being, knowing your luck, it'll explode or something."

Kyon took a deep breath as he looked at his Omni-tool, hoping for an idea to hit him, "How are these Omni-tools powered?" He asked as he turned to Tali.

"Well, that depends on-"

"Fast explanation please," Kyon said as he moved to the control console and ripped the top of it off, "I want to get out of here before lava falls on my head."

"Ours are powered the energy released from our bodies when an electrical pulse flows through our bodies, but when we where armor, they receive additional power from the armors power unit," Tali answered quickly as she looked over Kyon's shoulder.

"Thought it would be something like that," Kyon said as he attached a few of the wires from the console to his Omni-tool, "I really hope this works, if not, I'm going to have a lot less arm."

Kyon opened his Omni-tool, then rerouted the power systems of his armor to power the console. Then he took a couple more wires from the console and pushed them together. Ever so slowly, the elevator started going up

"Why does this feel slower than the elevator on the Normandy?" Shepard asked impatiently as she paced back and forth between two crates.

Suddenly there was a loud crash on one side of the elevator, and when the group looked up, there was a Krogan getting up from its long jump from the top floor.

"Hand over the Asari-" The krogan started, but was soon interrupted by the Shepard's biotic energy smashing into his body, and throwing him into the wall.

"Sorry, what was that?" Shepard asked as she started walking towards the Krogan.

Before she could get to the giant lizard there were five more thumps on the elevator, and each one was a geth trooper following the Krogan.

"Take cover!" Shepard shouted as she dived behind a crate and took out her pistol.

Kyon was in a predicament, because; one, he didn't have any cover by the command console, and two there was a geth trooper that landed right beside him, "Oh great, my luck," he said as he swung out with his left arm and hit the geth's face with his armored forearm, damaging the bio-reg. He followed up a barrage of stomps until the geth's head was practically a plate. While that was happening, Michael took it upon himself to take out the geth juggernaut. He charged the oversized geth trooper, jumped, and flipped in the air so that his feet landed on the chest of the geth. He pushed off immediately, flipping the juggernaut over a crate that was right behind it. Michael hit the ground with his hand as he drew the sword from his back, and swung his feet to the ground. Right after landing, he jumped at the machine again, this time with his sword held upside-down in both hands and stabbing downwards. His blade pierced the CPU of the juggernaut, deactivating the body. Tali and Ashley took cover from the geth's hail of fire, and blindly fired in the relative direction of the geth's position. In the corner of Kyon's vision he saw that his kinetic barriers were about to go down, and picked up the body of the geth and used it as a shield. When Kyon felt the elevator stop he threw ran into cover with the geth on his back.

"Tali!" Kyon shouted over the gunfire as he knelt in cover next to her, but immediately regretted it when he remembered the Geth on his back.

Tali turned to Kyon and almost shot him, "Kyon, don't run around with a Geth on your back!" she shouted as she ducked down, "Do you have a plan to get out of this?"

Kyon looked around and saw that the krogan was a biotic, "Yes, I do," Kyon activated the bio-reg, and ran at the krogan, "Shepard deal with the geth, I gat lizard face!" Kyon yelled as he ran in the direction of the battling biotics, "Hey, lizard face! I got something to tell you!" He touched Shepard's shoulder with his left hand, and smiled as the bio-reg lit up purple.

Shepard, now without her biotics for a second contemplated whether or not to shot Kyon for leaving her vulnerable, but decided that it would be better to get behind cover and focus on the remaining Geth.

"You," Kyon started as he punched him with his left hand, releasing Shepard's biotic energy and absorbing the Krogan's, "Are!" He released some of the energy he absorbed with his next punch to the lizard's face, stunning him "One ugly!" He brought his fists together and slammed them down on the krogan's head plate, splitting it in half, "Motherfucker!" the finishing blow was an uppercut to the jaw, but right as the punch connected, the last of the biotic energy in the bio-reg overloaded and exploded, sending both combatants flying in opposite directions.

Michael looked up from the juggernaut to see Kyon flying at him. He took out his pistol and loaded a concussive shot as he leaped out of the way of Kyon's trajectory. Just before Kyon hit the ground, Michael fired the concussive shot, and cushioned Kyon's landing. Michael then landed on the ground, and rolled over his shoulder into cover a meter away from the last of the geth. By this time, it had deployed its hexagon shield and were discharging the thermal clips from their pulse rifles. Just as it turned to start firing at Ashley and Tali's position, he vaulted over the crate and charged the trooper. The geth turned to fire at Michael, but didn't get the chance as Michael kicked the gun to the side with a spin kick, and followed it up with another kick, sending the geth to the ground. The geth's pulse rifle hit the hexagon shield and bounced right in front of Michael. He grabbed it from the air and smiled at the geth, "Say hello to your little friend," he pulled the trigger and watched as the plasma rounds shredded the internal circuitry of the geth trooper. The gun disassembled in Michael's hands, and became useless, "Well, that was a dream too good to be true," he sighed as he looked over to Kyon. It wasn't until right then that Michael noticed that Kyon's left forearm was missing, "Shit."

Kyon slowly opened his eyes, but immediately wanted to close them again, "What happened?" He asked as he tried to push himself up with both hands, only to fall to his left and feel a blinding pain near his elbow. Kyon rose to his knees as he pulled his arm into view, "My arm..." Kyon started trembling as he shook his head. Moments later he was screaming in agony as all the pain that he had subconsciously suppressed surfaced.

Tali ran over to Kyon's side and applied medi-gel to his arm, "Hang in there Kyon," she said as she tried to calm him down.

It was at this moment that the Krogan, who's face was now for the most part muscles and bone, gained consciousness and stood up. Seeing the redheaded man that had done the damage to him, he started charging at Tali and Kyon. Kyon who now had a semblance of awareness saw the Krogan coming, and pushed Tali out of the way. The krogan picked Kyon up and shoved him into a wall, "You did this to me," he sneered as he brought his fist up to punch Kyon. "Now I'll do the-"

The krogan was interrupted by a shotgun blast hitting him in the back. He looked at the person who fired at him, and saw Tali, "Don't touch him," she said threateningly as she fired again, but again the spray did nothing to the Krogan. Everyone readied their guns, but didn't fire out of fear of hitting Kyon.

"Run," Kyon said as he felt more blood drip from his arm, he looked down and came up with another plan, "Hey, ugly," he weakly coughed out, and as soon as the krogan turned back to him, he made a punching movement with what was left of his left arm, and blinded the krogan with his blood. The krogan let go of Kyon as he tried to clear his eyes of the blood. As soon as he hit the ground, the rest of the team let loose a volley of fire at the blinded krogan, finally finishing him off.

Kyon slowly tried to stand up again, and felt a three fingered hand help him up, "Thanks Tali," he said without looking. He started walking towards the exit of the cave, but before he could even leave the prothean complex he fell to the ground, unconscious from bloodloss.

* * *

><p><strong>Message communiqué recorded between Michael Arias and Edward Torres (ET) in 2171<strong>

**Michael: **_ET, I've received reports of Geth scouts entering alliance space and leaving after an hour or so, supposedly on the same paths that the flotilla is on, is this in any way related to what you are doing?_

**ET: **_I have no idea what you are talking about._

**Michael: **_Sure you don't, that's why you are getting binary messages from unknown senders to your Omni-tool every day._

**ET: **_You know, if you know I'm going to lie, why do you ask the question in the first place?_

**Michael: **_Because, I need to know that I can still trust you to do what's in the best interest of the galaxy, not just for the Quarians._

**ET: **_Relax, I already said I would go along with your plans, you don't need to spy on me._

**Michael: **_Can you at least tell me why you are in contact with the geth, or at least how you came into contact with the geth?_

**ET: **_Sorry, that would take way longer than I have time for, you know._

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Sorry for the long gap between chapters, I've been writing original works for the time between the gap, so hope you can forgive me. I love you guys who stick with this story, even though it isn't very regularly updated, especially now that I have more to do in my life, like actual work.

Arias out


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: Hey peeps, been a while since I last updated, it took me a while to get this done, mostly because I realized that I don't need to have one continuous story, I just need to give you all the meaty parts of it. That being said, there still needs to be fluff every now and again. Anyway, without further ado, on with the show.**

I took a deep breath as I used my right arm to turn off my alarm clock. Looking to my left I saw the familiar view of the Citadel's packed streets. As I sat up and hung my legs off the bed I felt the now familiar cold metal of my prosthetic arm. I lifted it above my head and started opening and closing my fist. I could see that I was moving my hand, but I couldn't feel it. I was told by the doctors not to test its limits, as it was a prototype. I stood up and grabbed a towel from the drawers. I walked towards the bathroom and started stripping my clothes from my body.

Once the door opened, steam flooded out due to the auto-heating function in the bath. I stepped into the water after I threw my shirt to the side. I heard the sound of a drone coming online and knew that it was picking up my clothes and putting them inside of the washer. Before sitting down, I grabbed my metal arm and twisted it. It disconnected from the connection port, allowing me to put it down outside of the bath. Once I sat down, I felt the water lap at my chest. I grabbed the small bowl to my right and filled it with water, then poured it out over my head, getting my hair wet.

Once it was empty I placed it back where it was and grabbed the bar of soap next to it and began scrubbing my body. I took a deep breath once I was done and stood up once more. I walked towards the middle of the bathing area and signaled for the computer to turn on the shower. The water rinsed my body off as I looked down. A drain opened up, letting all of the water out and filling a reservoir under the floor. After the water drained completely, the shower ended and a vent opened up above me, pouring out hot air.

Once my body was dried off, I walked over to where I set down my arm and grabbed it. Twisting it back into place as I walked over to the washer, I swung my arm in slow circles to make sure it was working properly. The washer dinged, telling me that my clothes had finished going through the drying cycle. I opened the lid and pulled out my clothes.

Once I put my clothes back on, I walked into the living room and turned on the TV. On the Extra-net news site, they were reporting about events on Noveria last week, mostly it was about the fact that Commander Shepard had just left the planet, after leaving one of the companies in a wreck. The death of Matriarch Benezia, the mother of Liara T'Soni, was confirmed, by Shepard and T'Soni herself.

I grabbed my left arm as a small amount of pain flared just above the socket for my prosthetic limb. It still hurt to think about what happened. I heard the door chime, and looked over at it, "You can't come in Michael!" I shouted as I stood up and balled my fist. The door chimed again, but I ignored it and went to the kitchen. I pulled out a beer with my left hand as it chimed again. At the fourth time I growled as the bottle broke in my hand, "Shit!" I shouted as I shook my hand and stomped towards the door. I raised my left arm to punch as my right hand hit the button for the door to open.

When it opened a surprising sight was at the door, "Tali," I gasped as I quickly lowered my hand, "I'm sorry," I said as I turned away, "please, come in." I walked back into the kitchen and started picking up the broken glass, "How are you doing?"

"I'm good," she said sheepishly as she sat down on the couch, "I just wanted to see how you were recovering."

I sighed as I put the glass into the trash bin and stood up, "I know Eres told you where I was, after all, he's the one who got me this apartment." I walked away as the drone appeared and did all the fine cleaning that I couldn't do without a broom, "Did he send you?"

"No!" Tali quickly answered as she tensed up, "I asked him because I wanted to see you. You've saved me a lot, and if I didn't help you, I wouldn't feel right with myself."

"I don't need your help," I felt the ice in my voice, to her it probably sounded like I was blaming her, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound like an ass, but what happened, it isn't just something you walk off."

"I don't know what it feels like," Tali admitted as she stood up and walked over to me, "If there is anything I can do for you, please tell me."

I smiled softly as I held my left hand up, and closed my fist, "It doesn't feel like anything, it was only a prototype, so they didn't even have a way to translate the data from the sensors into electrical pulses that my brain could understand. Think of it as a one-way radio, I can send a message to it, but it can't send a message back. The data recorded is too complex, at least for right now. They said as I get used to the arm, I might start feeling things. If I'm lucky I'll be able to understand everything it tells me, at least if I'm lucky."

"I see," Tali said as she looked down at my arm, "Are you going to come back to the Normandy?" I could hear the hopeful tone in her voice, despite the fact that there was interference caused by her suit.

I looked down at the ground and sighed, "I don't know," I answered honestly, "Michael told me that I'd be fine in combat, better now that my arm was artificial. I don't know, spending these past few weeks just thinking about where I am, everything is overwhelming."

"What do you mean?" Tali asked as she tilted her head to the side, just ever so slightly.

"I'm spirited away from my home, by gods know who," I start as I start walking in circles around the room, "end up on a spaceship run by a psychopath, I almost get killed, quite few times in fact, then my arm gets blown off." I stopped as I threw my fist into the wall. Even though I didn't feel like I put that much force behind my punch, the wall caved slightly, leaving a sizable dent in the wall.

Tali took a step back in shock of what I had just did, but as far as I could tell she wasn't about to walk out, "Kyon, you are focusing on the bad things, what about the good things that have happened? Like the people you've met, or the places you've been?"

"There's an old saying on earth, that white speck at the top of the chicken shit, is still just chicken shit," despite what I was saying, I knew she was trying to cheer me up. I had quite a few good things happen to me. I met Tali, for one, and I've been to places, that previously, I could only dream of.

Tali's form visibly shrunk as she gave up on convincing me, "I don't understand the saying, but I get what you are trying to say. But if you change your mind, Shepard and Eres are at _The Flux_, you should talk to them if you want to come back." Tali turned towards the door and walked out of the apartment.

I sighed as I sat down on the kitchen island and started thinking about what I was going to do. I cursed as I threw out my organic arm at the couch, where my leather jacket was hanging off of the side. Both my arm and the jacket began glowing green, and it flew towards me. As soon as I caught it, I was walking towards the door and putting it on, "Why the hell am I letting myself get dragged back into this?"


	21. Chapter 21

I took a deep breath as the doors to the flux opened, inside it looked like any other club back in my time, with the exception of the abundant number of aliens participating in the dancing. My left hand was stuffed inside of my pocket, preventing anyone from seeing that it was a prosthetic. At the bar, I saw Michael and Shepard. I grasped my left arm, and took a few deep breaths. The doctors said it was a mild effect of PTSD, and that it would pass eventually. I didn't believe them, and it made me going up to the two even harder. Once I started walking towards Michael, I felt a hand grab my shoulder. I turned around quickly, but nothing was there.

"What in the world?" I looked around for anyone that looked suspicious. Near the door that led back into the wards I thought I saw a familiar woman with dark hair walking out. She was wearing a dark green V-neck along with brown pants, clothing I hadn't seen anyone else wear in this time period, "Wait!" I shouted as I jumped down the stairs and ran after her. Shepard and Michael would have to wait, because finding out who that woman is was more important.

I reached the door and looked into the crowd of people, I saw her walking towards the elevator. Not wanting to lose her, I ran through the crowd, pushing people out of the way so that I could reach her in time. I watched her enter the elevator, and turn around. When I saw her eyes, I knew that it was her, "Jennifer!" I shouted as the elevator doors closed in front of me. I wasn't able to stop myself in time, and crashed into the door. I could feel the stares of the people around me as I got up and pressed the call elevator button, "I can't believe this, how is she... no, why is she here is the better question."

When the elevator arrived, I pressed the recall button to send it to the floor it was previously at. To my great displeasure, this elevator was about as fast as the one on the Normandy. When the doors opened I nearly ran out, but I knew I had to contain myself, so I controlled my movements and walked out, looking side to side. Over on the balcony was the woman I swore was Jennifer. I started towards her, but before I could reach out and grab her I felt someone grab my shoulder again. When I turned around this time, I didn't expect to see Michael standing behind me, "Who are you?" The man's hair was long and unkempt, making it look like he never cut or brushed it. And the smile he had on his face was one full of malice, as if he thought that he was cheated out of something and he was about to get it back.

"You don't recognize me? Easily understood since that imposter changed his face," he told me just before I felt a sharp pain on the side of my neck, "So predictable, you followed the bait like it was catnip."

I grabbed my neck as my vision began to blur, "What's... going on?" I flicked out my hand releasing the blade as I turned around only to see Jennifer standing with an empty syringe in her hand. The blade stopped just before it hit her throat, and I backed away from her, "Why?" I asked before blackness enveloped me.

* * *

><p>When my consciousness came back, I tried to jerk up, but I was strapped into a chair that kept me facing two large screens, "Where am I!?" I shouted just before a wave of dizziness hit me. It felt like I hadn't eaten in a few days, which I knew wasn't true. Whoever it was that captured me, it seems like he planned this out. I turned my head as best I could, but the strap around it kept me looking forward at the two screens in front of me.<p>

"You are in my home," the man answered, there was something familiar about his voice that I couldn't figure out, "ah, where is my hospitality, you must be hungry, after all, I did drain your body of all nutrients before you woke up."

That's why I felt dizzy just from shouting, he was trying to starve me, but I couldn't figure out why. There was no way he was doing this just for laughs. I tried to move my prosthetic arm, but when I didn't feel an pulling on my shoulder I realized he had already taken it off, "Why are you doing this?"

"Simple, someone like you can easily get close to the imposter that stole my life away from me," he talked as if I should know what he was talking about, "ah, but you probably don't understand any of this, I don't expect you too. All I need you to know is who. He is the person you know as Michael."

I didn't respond to him, because as far as I knew Michael was from the past like me. For him to replace someone wouldn't be so far fetched, but how would this guy know about me.

"You must wonder, 'Why me?" he said as if knowing where my thoughts were going, "Because he seems to have taken a deep interest in you."

I closed my eyes and tried to focus my biotics into my right arm. When the energy was moving through my body, it felt like my stomach was about to collapse and I stopped. I opened my mouth as if to vomit, but nothing came out of me.

"You can't use biotics if you are starved," the man jumped in front of me and looked me in the eyes, "one of the things I learned from testing asari on their limits."

"What did you do with Jennifer?"

"Oh, you mean the android I made to look like your girlfriend from a few centuries ago? She served her purpose and I'm dismantling her," he told me as he smiled, "but I wouldn't be worried about it. You see, what I'm going to do to you is much, much worse."

I wanted to kill this person, never before had I felt like this. This man had given me false hope that I could see Jennifer again, and he wanted to do untold things to me. If it was the last thing I did, I was going to kill this man. No, killing was too nice, I was going to make him suffer, "I will kill you," I growled in a low voice as I focused all of my energy on achieving one task, breaking my restraints.

"What was that?" he asked as he leaned forward and put his ear towards me, "I didn't hear you."

I felt my body move forward as it phased through my restraints and I lunged at the man who held me captive. I could feel my body become solid again as I reached out for him, but instead of grabbing onto his clothing, I passed right through him.

I heard him chuckling as I turned around to look at him, "It seems I was correct in only appearing to you now as a hologram, humans are so interesting. Even without anything in your body to fuel you, you still were able to use biotics. Not only that, you used the advanced skill phasing, instead of just breaking the restraints like I anticipated."

"I'm always full of surprises it seems," Kyon said as he looked at his own hand, "you will regret pissing me off, I guarantee that."

"I would take you seriously if you weren't about to collapse from malnutrition," he told me as the hologram disappeared.

I tried to stand up, and true to his word I fell immediately to the ground, "Damn him, I'm going to kill him, I don't care what it takes."


End file.
